Hinckley Happenings

We love Texas...

2011-12-22T18:28:00.000-08:00

...because of days like today. Evelyn has been vocally disgruntled at the fact that it is highly unlikely we will have a white Christmas (although we did a couple of years ago, but I think it is extremely rare). Well, I pointed out to her that while we won't have a white Christmas, we did have a day shortly before Christmas with wonderful weather. The kids and I were able to have a picnic lunch in the backyard, and in the afternoon we spent an hour or more playing at the park. It was a lot of fun. And while there are wonderful things about playing in the snow, for today I'll take Texas winter weather over true "wintry" weather.

I did it!

2011-12-14T18:06:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished sewing a bathrobe for David!! When he modeled it for the kids, who were excited to see it, Evelyn said, "There's no way you made that, Mom." I'll take that as a great compliment. :)

The saga of the bathrobe started in October 2010, when David went on a business trip to Colorado and stayed in a really nice hotel. They had nice bathrobes, which he enjoyed using, so I thought his own robe would be the perfect thing to get for his birthday in November. Well, on our limited gift budget, I couldn't find a decent robe, so I got the brilliant idea that I could sew one, and it would end up being a combination birthday/Christmas present. My sewing skills are still at a beginner level, although I am excited to be learning! Well, I got a pattern and then bought the material with my mom while we were visiting them in Utah last Christmas. The plan was to make it while we were there, so that Mom could help me with it. Well, as you can imagine, we could never find much time to work on it, so Mom just talked me through the pattern, which I found was not enough for my abilities once I was on my own back home. I got stuck at one point, and with the craziness of buying a house and moving (or at least they're my excuses) I gave up temporarily and stopped working on it for a long time. Then a couple of months ago I mustered up some courage and "hired" a friend who teaches sewing lessons to help me figure it out, and we made really good progress. Well, to complete the story, I finished the robe last night! I was so excited, and David was looking forward to wearing it for the first time. He likes it, which is mostly what matters, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment now that I've finished it. Now onto the pajama pants I'm trying to make for all of the family members for Christmas...

Motherhood

2011-10-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

Being a mother of young children is demanding, hard work. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade my title of Mom or position of stay-at-home-mom for anything, but that doesn't change the fact that it is a difficult, challenging job. When I find myself getting bogged down by the mundane (and seemingly endless) tasks of fixing meals, cleaning rooms, doing laundry, changing diapers, refereeing sibling squabbles/fights, and so on, I often turn to a few trusted and well-listened-to talks from various leaders in the Church. Some of my favorites are:

"Because she is a mother" (Elder Holland, April 1997)

"Daughters of God" (Elder Ballard, April 2008)

"To the mothers in Zion" (President Benson, February 1987)

"Mothers who know" (Sister Beck, October 2007)

"The joy of womanhood" (Sister Nadauld, October 2000)

For any other young mothers out there, I hope these talks can help you if and when you feel bogged down by the challenges of raising children and making a home.

So while it is hard, it is oh, so worth it. Just looking at these faces, how could I feel otherwise?

Update

2011-09-29T11:53:00.000-07:00

So, here's a quick rundown (with lots of pictures) of some highlights from the past couple of months.

Evelyn started Kindergarten! She is really enjoying it, and comes running out of the school with a big grin on her face most afternoons when the boys and I pick her up. We walk to and from school, so we are all really glad that the days of 105 degree afternoons are over, for this season at least.
Edison turned 3! He likes pointing out things that he can do because he is 3, like being strong.
Grant has 4 teeth! I love his toothy grins. He loves chasing after his brother and sister and being included in whatever they are doing (or getting into whatever they are doing).
And he turned 1! We had a joint birthday celebration a couple of months ago with his two cousins that are really close in age to him, so his actual birthday was pretty low key. But he did enjoy opening presents, and his older siblings let him play with the toys a little bit, in between using the toys themselves. :)
Evelyn lost her first tooth! She was quite excited and was eager to put the tooth under her pillow to find out what the tooth fairy might leave.
David successfully took out all of the shrubs in the front yard! This one was the most difficult.
This is a little out of order, but here are a few pictures from Edison's birthday. David made him a soccer goal, my parents got him a basketball hoop, and David's parents gave him a soccer ball (green! his favorite color!), so it was quite a sports-filled afternoon. David also took the day off of work and took Edison to the zoo in the morning. They had fun together, although they were disappointed that the elephant and giraffe areas were closed.

Edison is pretending to be a baby bird in this giant nest.
And finally, Edison is doing a gymnastics class at a city rec center! He is our little "monkey man," so it is little surprise that he is taking to gymnastics quite well. I love watching him do the balance beam, somersaults, trampoline, bar, and other jumping and tumbling. His favorite is swinging on the bar like a little monkey. :)

This one is him doing a donkey kick.

Well, that sums up the highlights. We are also taking advantage of the respite from the heat by spending a lot of our time outside these days. Hopefully I'll have pictures in the not-too-distant future that will show progress on our yard and overall curb appeal out front.

New house!

2011-07-15T17:49:00.000-07:00

After a year and a half of living with David's parents (thank you!!!) so we could save money, 6 months of that time spent actively househunting, we found, bought, and moved into our very own first home last month! The house we found really fits our needs: it has 3 bedrooms, 2 living areas (1 of which we've turned into a playroom), a big backyard, good schools, in the same church ward, and we're only about a half mile from David's parents' house, so the kids still get good Grandma and Grandpa time. There is a lot of work that we have done and much more that we want to do to get everything the way we want it, but that's true with most houses. So, without further ado, here are some pictures of our house! (I apologize to those of you who may not be that interested in all of these pictures. They're mainly meant for family members who don't live nearby and can't see our house.)

The house isn't much to look at from the front, especially with all of these overgrown bushes and trees. David has been working really hard to get them out (they're holly, which are technically trees, so they're no good for right up against the house), so I will have to do some good before and after pictures once we put in our own landscaping. The dead bushes are from the foundation repair company, who actually did us a favor by ripping out a few of the bushes to do their work. It's a little funny, though, that they stuck them back in dead.

Enjoying popsicles after hard work in the front yard

No more bushes on the west side! The playroom is so bright now. :)

This is the playroom, which is immediately to your right when you walk in the front door. The kids are loving having a room to play in, and we are loving that their toys aren't in their room. We also like the "reading nook" with the blue chair next to the bookcase.

Playroom looking into the front entryway

Here's the kitchen, and the door straight ahead goes into the playroom

Here's the living room, looking into the eating area in the kitchen.

And another view of the living room. The hallway to the left leads to the bedrooms, and the curtains to the right are covering the sliding door to the backyard.

Hallway to bedrooms. Going counterclockwise from the bottom right, the doors lead to the bathroom, furnace closet, master bedroom, Grant's room, and Evelyn's and Edison's room.

The week we moved the kids helped us make signs for each of the bedroom doors

Evelyn's and Edison's room, including the much-loved bunk bed.

Well, this is it for now! Stay tuned for more to come!

Happy Birthday, Soosy.

2011-06-01T18:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, I spelled that right. Soosy (or Soozy--Evelyn says you can spell it either way) is Evelyn's stuffed dog that has been her favorite stuffed animal for most of the past year and a half. Well, Evelyn decided that Saturday was Soosy's birthday, and while pronouncing the day to be a stuffed animal's birthday is not an uncommon occurrence, this time we actually threw a party for Soosy. It started with Evelyn wanting to bake a pretend cake, which she has done a few times just mixing flour, sugar, water, salt and maybe a little bit of cinnamon together to experiment and have fun. But I had a coupon for a free cake mix, so we went all out for Soosy and made her a devil's food chocolate cake with pink frosting and chocolate sprinkles. Evelyn and I had a lot of fun making and decorating the cake together.

Then she wrapped a "present," we blew up a few balloons, and the party was off and running. Evelyn and Edison had so much fun with those balloons. And of course we all enjoyed the cake. So thanks for having a birthday, Soosy. It was fun.

The Dallas Zoo!

2011-05-30T14:15:00.000-07:00

We decided to buy a family pass to the zoo this year, which is looking to be a lot of fun! We've been twice this month (well, in May), and it is so nice to be able to go for just the morning (especially as we get into the hot summer) and not feel like we have to cram everything into one exhausting day. The kids' favorite areas seem to be the big African animals (elephants, giraffes, etc.) and the fun children's area on the other side of the zoo. We forgot to take pictures of the children's area, but there's a fun wading stream with rocks and other things to climb on that Evelyn and Edison love. When we went a few weeks ago we caught most of a cool bird show, complete with birds who would swoop down and pick up dollar bills if you held them out and a bird that sang "Old MacDonald."

Here are a few pictures from our zoo adventures.

Riding the train there and back is half the fun for Evelyn and Edison (or at least for the first few minutes of the 50-minute ride).

Carousel! (It's quite sneaky that they put it right by the main entrance to the zoo, so we see it every time we walk in....)

For $5, you can feed the giraffes. We haven't coughed up the money yet, but it's fun to watch other people do it so you can see the giraffes' long black tongues.

Evelyn and Edison both love the elephants.

Grant mostly likes eating snacks and chilling in the stroller (except when it's naptime).

I literally had to carry Edison away from this group of elephant statues, which were a lot more interesting to him than the real elephants.

You can't quite see them, but there are African penguins in and around that water. Did you know there are penguins that live in warm weather? I didn't, until I first went to the zoo.

April adventures

2011-04-30T12:18:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that April is about over. We are ready for the rain and storms to be through, but not quite ready for the heat. But, I guess that all comes with living in Texas. We've taken quite a few pictures over the past month, so I'll just let them tell you about what we've been up to.

We took a trip to the local LDS bookstore and let the kids each pick out a picture of a temple to hang up in their room. Edison was determined to find a green temple (his favorite color), but he settled for a picture of the San Antonio temple, while Evelyn was excited to find a pretty picture of the Mount Timpanogos temple, which is where David and I were married. On our way home we stopped by the Dallas temple.

Where's Moroni?

Grant, who is now 7 months (!), is such a good, happy baby. He loves watching his brother and sister, putting anything and everything into his mouth, and is generally just a happy, content little boy. Sometimes he will laugh hysterically at the simplest things, like when Edison walked toward him the other day. He's very wiggly and rolls a lot (not all over the place yet, but it's not too far off). Here's our happy boy!

For those of you who take little kids to the grocery store, here's a tip I once saw a young mom do: she made a "balloon" out of a produce bag for her toddler. What a great idea! The kids like entertaining themselves with it, and the other day it got a whole lot of laughs from Grant as he watched Edison throw it up in the air and catch it. So we often do it when we're at the grocery store. Well, with all of the windy, windy days we've had, we decided to turn them into "kites." Evelyn and Edison had a lot of fun running around outside with them.

A month or so ago David and I had a fun date night where we went up to one of the city parks and used a public grill to cook some dinner and just enjoy being outside. Well, since then David has done a similar thing with Evelyn for a Daddy-daughter date and then with Edison for a Father-son outing. No pictures were taken with Evelyn, but here's our happy camper Edison.

When Evelyn and I went to pick up David and Edison after their "campout," we noticed a group of people beginning to set up a hot air balloon in the big field. I can't remember ever being so close to a hot air balloon. It was really neat to see the whole process, and the kids (especially Evelyn) were quite intrigued and excited.

Easter! We joined Katie (sister-in-law) and her kids the day before Easter at her ward's Easter party. Evelyn was super excited about the egg hunt, and she uncharacteristically ran out on her own as soon as her age group was announced. Edison had no interest in the egg hunt but was happily and busily eating a little bag of candy he had won from a game. I finally convinced him to go outside with me after all of the other kids had gone out. We had a harder time finding eggs, since all of the easy ones were gone, but Edison didn't care.

And here are a few pictures with the kids in their new Sunday Easter outfits. (Thank you Mom and Dad!)

And last, but not least, this past Wednesday was 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins. And, well, you can guess how excited the kids were to go out for ice cream.

What we hadn't expected, though, were a fire truck, a fire ambulance, and the fire fighters who were there because the proceeds of the night were going to benefit some sort of fire fighter foundation. It was a pretty exciting night. :)

So that, in a nutshell (or at least a lot of pictures), sums up our April. Now on to May!

Pictures!

2011-03-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

I love spring! We have been trying to take advantage of some nice weather over the past few weeks with trips to the park, playing in the backyard, and just getting outside. I'm also enjoying being able to take pictures again. So, here are a bunch of recent pics!

Evelyn is learning how to ride a bike. This was taken on her first (or second) bike ride. (Don't worry, now she wears a helmet and has training wheels.)

Edison enjoying sidewalk chalk

This was actually taken a couple of months ago, but here's our happy guy!

proudly walking on a stepping stone path

catapulting a tennis ball into the air

Evelyn, remembering some turkeys we made around Thanksgiving using snack foods, asked if we could do something fun like that for snack the other day. I came up with this little flower. Evelyn wasn't that impressed, but I was pleased with the result. :)

A few months ago David stumbled upon a free kids workshop that Home Depot does on the first Saturday of each month. So far the kids have made a picture frame, heart shelf with a coat hook, racecar, and now a planter box. They absolutely love it! The past couple of months David has just gone by Home Depot, picked up the projects, and done them at home with the kids, since we've had busy days and couldn't do it at Home Depot. But this morning he took Evelyn and Edison up to Home Depot and they had a blast. Evelyn was very proud of how well she used their child-sized hammers.

Then we bought two sample-sized cans of paint (which was a good size, since Edison accidentally knocked one over, spilling half of its contents onto the newspaper--thank goodness for doing the project outside) and let the kids paint them. The pictures may not show it very well, but the kids were so excited to get to paint the boxes by themselves.

Ta-da! I can paint more than just a planter box!

Back in business

2011-03-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

Not having a camera for a few months makes writing blog posts less enticing (or at least that's my excuse). But we got a new camera on Saturday, so we're back in business! Grant is now 6 months old, and he had his first taste of solid food (baby oatmeal) Saturday afternoon. His reaction was somewhat passive: not disgusted by it, but not in love with it either. He did really like the spoon, though. And at least the oatmeal isn't the nasty amoxicillin Mommy keeps trying to get down him (with limited success). Yep, when I took him in for his 6 month check-up, everything was looking great until the doctor looked in Grant's right ear. Apparently it was "flaming red," according to the doctor. Hmm. That's news to me. Grant hasn't been acting overly fussy or pulling on his ear. Hopefully he'll be this easygoing about teething. (fingers crossed)

Family Photo

2010-12-05T20:29:00.000-08:00

Here's our family! Why don't we take photos like this more often?

Birth story

2010-11-22T19:55:00.001-08:00

For anyone interested in details of our birth experience with Grant, David has written a "Going Natural" post on his blog, Strange Ideas, at www.davidhinckley.com.

Good pictures

2010-11-21T18:41:00.000-08:00

I still want to do a post about Evelyn's birthday party a few weeks ago, but here are some other recent pictures.

Edison had a lot of fun yesterday "helping" David work on the car.

What handsome boys!

Halloween

2010-10-31T15:38:00.000-07:00

The kids (well, Evelyn and Edison--we didn't dress Grant up this year) had fun celebrating Halloween last weekend. Evelyn has been saying for months that she wanted to be a butterfly, so I made some wings out of cardboard and spray painted them pink.

Evelyn had convinced Edison he wanted to be a cat, but we intervened and dressed him up as a "handyman" instead. It was the cutest when he carried around his toolbox, although I don't think we got any pictures with his tools. Well, I made "pumpkin" oatmeal pancakes for breakfast,

but the main festivities were going to a pumpkin patch out in Flower Mound. Evelyn and Edison had a lot of fun jumping in bounce houses, riding on a hay wagon, swinging, posing for pictures (okay, not always fun) and a huge inflatable slide. Edison was maybe too little to go on the slide, but he did a great job on it, and David and I were proud of the way that Evelyn cheered Edison on as he climbed up. Even with bigger kids running around them, Evelyn wouldn't go down until Edison made it to the top. Once we got back to Plano, we stopped at a few ward members' houses to trick-or-treat. If it hadn't been so late, we would have gone to more, but the kids were pretty tired. So for parents who aren't huge fans of Halloween, I think we had a fun day together.

hay wagon ride

a fun kid-sized swing

our reverse psychology to get Edison to smile ("No smiles now. Only frowns.") didn't quite work this time

By request

2010-10-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

I've had requests for more pictures of Grant, so I did a quick "photo shoot" with him today. Here are some of my favorites.

Nyah

Dimples!

I caught the end of a smile

Baby pics

2010-10-06T11:44:00.001-07:00

Grant is here! He was born on September 24, which was actually his due date. I guess he wanted his own birthday, since on my birthday (the 23rd) I only had some false labor. But he arrived safe and sound and is a great baby! My mom flew in on the 24th and just left this past Monday. It was great having her out here with us, but now it's back to reality and trying to adjust to having 3 kids (though I'm still getting help, seeing how we live with David's parents).

But here are some pictures of our cute little boy.

And I can't find the right picture, but Grant, like Edison, inherited his daddy's dimples. :)

Me

2010-09-05T18:14:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I realized that I rarely, if ever, post anything about myself. Usually when I get around to writing something, it's about one or both of the kids. So this is all probably old news to most of you, but I also realized that somehow I have failed to mention anything on the blog about Baby Hinckley #3 that will soon be joining our family! I am about 37 weeks along, so with just a few weeks until d-day I often flip back and forth between feeling excited and ready to welcome our next son and then panicky feelings of "I'm not ready!" It's an interesting mixture.

37 weeks

This pregnancy has been similar to previous pregnancies, meaning it's been pretty smooth and uneventful. However, I feel much more prepared for this birth than either of my first two. When Evelyn was born, I was somewhat prepared, but we mostly just went along with what was "normal" and what the doctors said (i.e.-epidural, the doctor broke my water, etc.). Then with Edison, I mostly figured "I've done this before, so I don't need to read up too much or do too much preparation." So once again we just went with the norm, found a doctor, and didn't question much of what she recommended. Well, the labor didn't go nearly as well as I had hoped. I didn't feel very comfortable with my nurse, and my doctor was kind of pushy and trying to speed things up (I seem to remember she was leaving later that day for a trip) by breaking my water and pushing Pitocin. Well, what resulted was a cord prolapse and an emergency C-section. Of course, the most important thing is that Edison was healthy and I was fine, but it was not a very pleasant experience for us.

So, this time around, I have taken a much more proactive approach to everything, including switching caregivers twice, finally settling on a midwife about 15 minutes away. David and I have also been reading a few books about natural childbirth, which I am excited about. Our favorite one has been about the Bradley method, which is husband-coached childbirth. We'll see how everything happens when the baby actually comes, but I am so glad that David has been and will be so involved in everything.

In other areas, I have been sewing more lately, which I really enjoy. I need to take pictures, but my latest projects were a tool belt for Edison's birthday and a nursing shield (for myself). And I have an itch to sew things for the baby, but I can't quite decide what. I'm thinking maybe a few cute burp rags, and I found a cute and easy pattern for rings that the baby can chew on and play with, but that may be a project for a couple months from now.

In our ward I am enjoying getting to know the Young Women in my calling as the Personal Progress leader. What a wonderful program it is.

And as of recently I am also getting my feet wet in the whole public school scene, now that Evelyn started pre-K a couple of weeks ago. She loves it, and I really like the school and teachers. We did the whole carpool thing for a little while as Evelyn got used to the idea of riding the school bus, which she has now ridden twice. The first time she got on and the bus drove away felt pretty weird for me. She's sure growing up! The adjustment to having her gone during the mornings hasn't been as big as I had expected. Edison seems to be just fine that Evelyn is gone for a little while, although he's always excited when it's time to go pick her up. But we have both been enjoying the time with just the two of us.

And even though this post is supposed to be about me, I can't resist including a few pictures of the kids. I took these this afternoon.

painting with shaving cream

coloring--one of Evelyn's favorite things these days

Funny boy

2010-08-19T18:39:00.001-07:00

Edison had his 2-year check up earlier this week, and he is doing great! He is quite a talker, often giving us play-by-play accounts of what he's doing, what he's done or what he's about to do. So I was ready to let him "wow" the doctor with his verbal skills. Well, she asked if he's putting any words together, and just that morning I had counted an 11-word sentence (yesterday he said something about going in an airplane and touching his spotting scope to the sky, which was 15 words). Then the doctor pointed to me, asking Edison to identify me.

"Who is that?"

"Mommy."

"Who is that?"

"Ellolyn." (Evelyn)

"Who is that?"

"Me."

Then he said his name, and as she turned away he said, with a smile on his face, "Daddy calls me Eddy."

He is such a funny little guy, which I feel like I've been saying to describe him ever since he first started smiling and laughing. He often keeps us laughing, and he's got the cutest little impish grin that you can't help but smile back.

Homebody

2010-08-02T19:27:00.000-07:00

Most, if not all of my life, I have been a homebody. I'm not extremely adventurous, and oftentimes it's just much easier to stay at home with things I'm familiar with and routines. But when I do that too much with young kids, they get pretty restless and need more stimulation than just boring ol' Mom. So this past week I have made more of an effort to get out of the house and find fun things to do. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Playing at the park

Mall play place

Library

"Library Legos"

Teddy Bear picnic

Chocolate Pudding Day

2010-07-01T17:28:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday the kids and I had a lot of fun celebrating "Chocolate Pudding Day." The festivities including finger painting with the pudding, eating it and later having frozen pudding pops. Tyler (our nephew) was staying over, since his new sister had arrived just a couple of days before, so he enjoyed (lots of) chocolate pudding, too. Here are some pictures I took during the celebration.

Little-known holidays

2010-06-24T19:19:00.001-07:00

Did you know that today is International Fairy Day? Or that Saturday is Chocolate Pudding Day? I didn't either, until Evelyn and I read an idea in this month's Friend magazine. There's a page in the middle that gives 20 ideas for things to do this summer, and one idea included celebrating obscure holidays, like Chocolate Pudding Day. I thought it would be fun to google the idea, and I found a website with long lists of holidays, including Hot Dog Night and Gorgeous Grandma Day. So I wrote some of our favorites on a calendar in Evelyn's room, which we're planning to celebrate during the next few months. I think it has a lot of potential to make this summer more interesting. :)

So, for what it's worth, Happy International Fairy Day!

Funny kids

2010-03-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

I hope you enjoy these anecdotes as much as I do, but here are some funny things the kids have said/done this week:

Evelyn was talking to Grandpa Hinckley outside, and it went something like this.

Evelyn: This is a strong wind.

Grandpa: It's a powerful wind.

Evelyn: No, it's a strong wind.

Grandpa: What's the difference?

Evelyn: The difference is, I'm right and you're wrong.

Edison is communicating more and more, and while he's certainly not saying sentences, he's putting words together pretty frequently so we can follow what he's saying. For example, Evelyn got some fruit snacks in her church class today, and she ate them after lunch (per request of Mom). I asked her if she'd like to share one with Edison, so she gave him one and then ate the rest in her room. Well, Edison knew where the fruit snacks went, so he followed Evelyn, knocked on her door, and said, "Knock. Evelyn! Open. Come in!" He was disappointed when Evelyn wasn't interested in opening the door, but we found another little treat for him.

And this is kind of a brag on Evelyn, but during church today I passed a member of the Primary presidency who stopped to tell me that during opening exercises Evelyn volunteered to recite the 3rd Article of Faith in front of the Primary and did it perfectly! First of all, the fact that Evelyn volunteered to get up in front of everyone like that surprised me a bit, since she's usually more content to watch others (although lately she says that one of her favorite things to do is "talk to people"). And I also didn't know that she knew all of the 3rd Article of Faith. They've been working on it this month in Primary, and I guess she's learned it from the few times they've practiced it. Good job Evelyn!

And to be even, here's one more story about Edison. He heard his grandpa talking upstairs, so he ran over to the stairs saying, "Papa!" Then he heard that David was up there, too, and he said, "Daddy!" Then he looked right at me while standing at the gate to the upstairs and said, "Mom! Open!!" He knows what he wants....

Ballet recital

2010-03-15T19:12:00.000-07:00

Evelyn's ballet class (which she has loved) ended last Friday, so her class did a little "recital" for the parents. Not many girls were there, since the last day was pushed back from a snow cancellation last month and happened to land on the Friday before spring break, but Evelyn still had a great time. She was excited that Grandma and Grandpa (Hinckley) were able to come, too. Before the girls did the two little routines they had learned, the teacher, Miss Denise, had them do a few of the things they've been working on each week like ballerina hands and leaps.

Then the girls did two routines, one sitting down with a teddy bear on their laps (it didn't seem very "ballet-esque" to me, but if anyone wants to see the video of it, just let me know) and the other one dancing with a flower. The video of the second dance is kind of funny, because Evelyn was the only one really paying attention for most of it. You can see at the beginning that Evelyn is trying really hard to follow the teacher and even copies Miss Denise's gestures to get the girls to focus and be quiet. She also looks at the other girls sometimes like "why aren't you doing the dance?".

I'm glad that Evelyn was able to do this ballet class, and I'm pretty sure there will be more dance classes to come.

A ballerina and a boxer

2010-02-03T18:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I've decided to rejoin the blogging world just so no one thinks we've dropped off the face of the earth. A quick recap of the past few months: we enjoyed Thanksgiving and Christmas here with Hinckley family members (all of David's siblings and families were here for Christmas), and about a month ago we moved out of our apartment and back in with David's parents. We're saving to buy our own house, which is exciting and scary at the same time. But that's a different story.

Last week Evelyn started a much-anticipated ballet class for 3- and 4-year-olds. As you may imagine from Evelyn, there were many "happy dances" in the weeks leading up to her first class last Friday. She looked so cute in her ballet clothes, and I'm really glad that her teacher let the parents stay in the room for this first class (we'll be in the hall for the rest of them). Evelyn did a great job following instructions from the teacher, and she had a lot of fun doing "penguin feet" (aka-1st position) and "ballet arms," among other things. I'm excited for her to do the other 5 classes in the coming weeks.

As for our little "boxer," while Edison hasn't picked up a new sport, he's had some injuries that look like he's taken up boxing. Last week he gave me quite a scare when he fell off of a chair at the kitchen table, hit his mouth (possibly on both the table and the chair as he came down--I'm not quite sure), chipped a tooth, pushed another one back and got a big fat lip. But, being our tough little guy, once the shock and initial pain wore off (and the blood was cleaned up), he didn't think another thing about it. He went down for a nap shortly after the incident, and when he woke up the first thing he said was, "Eat!" He never complained when we pulled his lip back to check on the extent of the damage, which was a blessing. Thankfully, the chip wasn't bad enough to affect a nerve, and it was a clean enough break that we don't need to get it shaved or anything. I just wish we had taken our family pictures before this happened....

Also last week, I buzzed Edison's way-too-long hair for the first time. I think he looks so cute! I'll have to post pictures another time, though, because I've been having issues with our camera and haven't taken any pictures since the haircut.

And in other news, I have a new church calling! After 2 1/2 years in a couple of Primary presidencies, I am now the Young Women ward camp director. Let's just say I was in shock at first, but I'm excited to delve into the calling and try to help make girls' camp a fun experience for those involved. It will be quite a learning experience for me, that's for sure.

the kids (Edison, Evelyn and Tyler--my nephew) having fun in the backyard

Halloween

2009-11-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

Evelyn was really excited about Halloween this year (what kid isn't excited to have their parents take them around to fill a bucket with candy?). She told me many times yesterday, "You HAVE to take me trick or treating tonight." :) I made a cat tail and cat ears for her, but this past week she kept changing her mind, and I finally gave in and made some wings last minute so she could be a fairy. (We'll use the cat ears and tail at her cat-themed birthday party this weekend.) So, I took our fairy Evelyn and our little missionary Edison to the ward trunk or treat. Edison wasn't too sure about all of it, but Evelyn had a blast and got pretty comfortable going up to people to say "Trick or Treat" after a few minutes. I forgot my camera at the actual event, but luckily we got a few pictures before leaving home. After we got home, Evelyn quickly organized her candy according to color, shape, etc., and Edison just enjoyed dumping out Evelyn's candy and putting it back in the bucket.

Breeba, Moosa and Little Lamb, oh my!

2009-10-25T16:26:00.000-07:00

hooray for choosing my own clothes!

Hmm. Where to start? Here's an update on Evelyn and what she's up to. She's about to turn 4, but she reminds us that she loves being 3 and "I'm good at being 3!" Some things that she enjoys are cats, dancing, learning how to read and playing with her "guys" (aka-stuffed animals). Her favorite "guys" these days are Breeba (a large, purple My Little Pony), Moosa (a white kitty) and Little Lamb (a stuffed sheep, as you may have guessed). She's also a good helper--when she wants to be--and likes doing things for Edison, like finding and giving him his blankie when he's sad.

watching the rain

These days she keeps asking for a pet cat. I keep hoping that the requests will die down, but there aren't any signs yet that she'll change her mind. Maybe I shouldn't be so anti-pet, but I just have no desire to have and take care of a cat. Perhaps Evelyn will wear me down at some point, but not right now. She's being pacified a little bit by having a cat-themed birthday party in a couple of weeks, so I'm trying to come up with some good cat related games, making cat shaped brownies and cat ears for all of the party crowd to wear during the party. Oh, and perhaps you can guess what Evelyn's going to be for Halloween....

copying Edison's peek-a-boo; the big bandage on her head is from when she ran into the wall and split her head open (which healed on its own w/o stitches)

Evelyn is doing well learning how to read. She's venturing out on her own a bit more and trying to read words here and there, like at the grocery store or looking at food labels during lunch. And speaking of venturing out, she's starting to "come out of her shell." She has always been pretty shy around new people, but in the past few weeks she's played with new kids at the park, talked to someone at the post office ("Can I tell him the name of my sheep?"), and told a librarian about the new movie she was checking out, while dancing around with excitement.

finger painting, but not too sure about it

The other day she said something that just made me laugh. A few weeks ago we talked about acorns in preschool, and while we were out getting the mail the ground under a tree was covered with acorns. Here was our conversation:

Marie: What do acorns grow up to be?

Evelyn: Trees. I wish I was a tree.

Marie: Why do you wish you were a tree?

Evelyn: 'Cause then I wouldn't have to eat the dinners you make.

Gee, thanks. At least I know she was listening in preschool. :P

Personality

2009-10-21T04:32:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on what Edison is like these days. Edison will be 14 months next week, and it is so fun to watch his personality come out more every day. While he mostly crawls to get around, he ventures out with walking a little more each day. He gets so proud of himself when he does something new, like taking more steps or the other day when he got some of his sandwich on a fork and to his mouth.
Some of his favorite things are doors, light switches, trying to grab the window blinds before Mom raises them out of reach, his blankie (he looks so cute when he snuggles with it), throwing things (usually food and cups, but sometimes balls) and climbing. I can only imagine what he'll be climbing on in the upcoming weeks and months, but so far he loves climbing on Evelyn's small table and chairs in their room, the couch and chairs in the living room and stairs. Since we live in an apartment, there aren't any stairs inside, but any time he sees the front door open he races as fast as he can to try to get out the door and up the stairs outside. The other day he practically jumped off the couch to get outside. He also tries to walk up the stairs sometimes, which is a little interesting with his short little legs and so-so balance. :)

In the past month or two his language has really taken off. He probably has between 15 and 20 words, such as door, ball, bath, uh-oh, bye-bye, stuck and help. Of course the words come out at varying degrees of clarity, but it sure helps that he's learning how to communicate with more than just yelling/screaming.

One of the things I love best about this little boy is his smile. I think it will save him in the future when he gets into things and then flashes his dimpled grin, but it sure melts my heart when he gives me that big toothy smile.

Updates

2009-10-20T04:47:00.001-07:00

I don't know how a month can pass by so quickly. It usually feels like I've recently posted, but when I turn around, it's been about a month. Oh, well. Here is a quick update of the happenings in the Hinckley household:

The new preschool year has been going on for about 1 1/2 months, and I'm enjoying it. The curriculum I use is great, and the kids seem to be enjoying it. I still need to work on how to keep Edison engaged and not into their stuff, but that's a different story.

David started his job at match.com a few weeks ago, and he's really enjoying it. He is on their email team, so he gets to answer a lot of questions, help fix problems, and help keep customers happy. He enjoys the challenge of needing to say (write) the right thing to help the customer feel better about their problem/situation. He also likes the people that he works with, and the atmosphere at match is pretty laid back (or so it seems to me). It's kind of weird to have him go to work in jeans....

As for the kids, I'll do individual posts on them, with pictures. But suffice it to say that they keep me busy, and I am so glad I'm able to be at home with them.

In other news, it's birthday season in our home: Edison turned 1 at the end of August, my birthday was last month, Evelyn turns 4 (!) in a few weeks, and then David's birthday is 2 weeks after that. And then we jump right into the holiday season, so I'm trying to be on top of things this year so that I'm not scrambling (like last year). Hopefully all of my projects and homemade gifts will work out alright....

Fun (and free!) date night

2009-09-19T13:04:00.000-07:00

David and I had an in-home date night last night (like most of our date nights), that we both really enjoyed. [Warning! It's kind of cheesy, so stop now if you're not alright with cheesy stuff.] Before our date night we put together a list of "favorites" for each of us to fill out beforehand. Some of the things we used were: favorite physical feature (of the other person), favorite movie we've watched together, favorite date we've done, favorite character trait (of the other) and the biggest way the other has changed since we've been married. It was fun thinking of answers (some of which were easier to answer than others) and being reminded of things that we love about each other and fun memories we have together. Then, after the kids were in bed, we got out our lists and took turns sharing our answers. I could have predicted some of David's answers, but others were a surprise to me.
We had talked about also checking a movie out from the library (like one of the first movies we watched together), but we didn't end up having time. Oh, and since dessert is almost always part of our dates, we also had some ice cream. :)
So, while it wasn't the most glamorous evening, it was a lot of fun and just a good reminder of why we love being married to each other. (Yes, you may groan now if you want to.)

Duh!

2009-09-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

Edison has recently had an explosion (for a 12-month-old) of new words. He's now up to about 10. One of the words he uses most often is "duh," meaning "yuck." He loves putting things in his mouth (mostly for the reaction these days), and his favorite thing is shoes. He loves chewing on shoes, so I'm always telling him "yuck, yuck!" and then taking them away. Well, the other night at dinner we had some roasted vegetables, so I put a piece of red bell pepper on his tray. He picked it up, put it in his mouth, and then immediately took it out, threw it back on his tray and said "Duh!!" I thought it was pretty funny, even though he was telling me that dinner was yucky. But it is fun to see his language develop and watch him become more of a little person and less of a baby.

Sewing

2009-09-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I got a sewing machine, and I've had a lot of fun doing a few little sewing projects. I haven't been brave enough to do anything very big, but some of my accomplishments so far include a headband, a cover for my sewing machine, hemming some pajama pants, adding straps to Edison's hat (which he still pulls off in about 5 seconds) and making a pair of shorts for Edison. I made the shorts with a lot of help and guidance from my mom while I was out in Utah, but she made sure that I was actually doing it and she was just advising (at least mostly). It feels great to be gaining confidence and seeing progress with each little thing I do. I'm hoping that this will become a lifetime hobby as I work on it a little at a time. Some of my next projects are altering some of David's work clothes and eventually finishing the living room curtains that I started awhile ago....

Effects of an Older Sister

2009-09-03T17:38:00.000-07:00

Evelyn definitely has a girly influence (go figure) on Edison, especially since he's still so young. I know his mind will change about some things as he gets older, but right now he loves handing me one of Evelyn's headbands so I'll put it on his head. He also enjoys brushing his hair (although that isn't just a girl thing), wearing Evelyn's pink sunglasses, and the other day he seemed to like Evelyn pushing him around in her doll stroller (per request of big sister). These could be potential blackmail pictures when he's a teenager, but right now it's just cute.

Random stuff

2009-08-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything. While I can't think of anything big that has happened in our family the past month or so, here are a few random happenings from the Hinckley household.

Edison has been cutting teeth, which is no fun for either him or us, but he sure looks cute with his toothy grins. :) He now has two teeth up top and two on the bottom.

A few weekends ago we went on a "family outing." We were originally going to go to the pool here at our apartment complex, but it happened to be closed for cleaning. So we decided to go to a park to let the kids play. Evelyn and I had made apple juice popsicles, so we brought them along in the cooler. It's a good thing that we had the popsicles, because after being inside all day, it didn't even cross my mind that it was, oh, 102 degrees outside. Luckily part of the park was in the shade and we had the popsicles and some water, but next time I'll think about the weather.

Edison enjoyed trying the popsicle, although he wasn't too sure about it at first...

...but then he decided that he liked it.

And Evelyn and I finished the summer preschool class I've been doing. I think it went pretty well, and Evelyn is excited to start back up next month.

Words of a child

2009-07-02T18:34:00.001-07:00

We've gotten kind of lax the past few months with holding regular family home evenings. I'd like to blame it on David's work schedule, but really we just haven't made it a priority. Well, last week during Evelyn's bedtime prayer she said something like, "And thank you for family night, when we get to have it sometimes." Talk about a wake up call! That was on a Friday evening, so I talked with David that night and we made a point to have family home evening on Saturday. Then on Monday we found out that David's tutoring sessions were cancelled, so we jumped on the opportunity to have another family night, even though Evelyn thought it was silly that we were having it so soon again. We talked about and drew Lehi's Dream together, which Evelyn really enjoyed. Needless to say, we are making regular family home evenings more of a priority now. It is too important a thing to just let happen when it's convenient.

On the Move

2009-07-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Edison has gotten pretty good at the "army crawl" and uses it to get all over the place. Some of his favorite things these days that draw his attention are wheels, open doors and whatever he knows I will take away from him (kids have quite a knack for knowing just what you don't want them to get into). I know this is just the beginning, since he's only been really mobile for the past week or two, so right now it's still novel when he gets into things or crawls across the room to get something he wants.
I'd also like to point out just how much he enjoys playing with and sticking out his tongue. Sometimes he reminds me of a little puppy. :)

Summer!

2009-06-07T17:58:00.000-07:00

We've been enjoying the weather the past few weeks with visits to fun parks (Plano has some great parks!) and going to the pool. There's a pool and a kiddie pool about a building away from us in our apartment complex, and yesterday afternoon we finally went swimming.Evelyn was SOOOO excited and had a blast playing in the kiddie pool. We had it to ourselves most of the time, so both Evelyn and Edison got to splash around a lot and have fun. Evelyn liked watching the kids play in the bigger pool and kept yelling "Look what they're doing!!" while pointing at them. We didn't take our camera to the pool (maybe next time), but here's a pre-swimming shot:

For whatever reason, Evelyn was set on taking this duck bath toy to the pool, and she carried it like this the whole way there.

And after the pool David gave the kids a bath in their swimsuits. Evelyn thought it was pretty cool that they were all in the bath, but she refused to smile for the camera. :P

Kid pics

2009-05-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

I've had comments from various family members that they want to see more pictures of Edison and Evelyn, so be forewarned that these are just a few random pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Evelyn trying to fit in her toy wagon, along with some "guys"

Edison shortly after Evelyn stuffed his mouth full of
crackers (I didn't have the camera in time for the
"my mouth is so full" look)

family home evening with some of the "guys"

the joys of the bathroom mirror

looking quite handsome in his Sunday clothes

It's all about perspective

2009-05-15T17:26:00.001-07:00

I don't love doing laundry, and I probably never will. It is a neverending cycle of washing, drying, folding, putting away, getting clothes dirty and starting all over again. But after a month or so of not having a working washing machine, I was actually excited to do a couple of loads of laundry today. David was able to pick up a washing machine that I found on craigslist yesterday, thanks to his mom driving him in their truck and his dad helping to unload it.
Now, things really weren't as bad as I sometimes felt they were, since we have a laundromat here in the apartment complex and David did a lot of our laundry over at his parents' house as he worked there. But getting a washing machine after being without one for a little while makes me appreciate it all over again. It may not take long before I look at laundry as just another chore again, but right now I'm simply grateful. It's one of those things that's all about the way you look at it.

On the web

2009-05-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

While David explains all of this much better than I do, I wanted to write a little about what he's doing these days. During the day, he spends most of his time working on his business, which is a series of websites that currently focus on local policy and news. He started http://www.planopolicy.com/ about a month and a half ago, although his time lately has been more or less all spent on http://www.planopronto.com/. Plano Pronto is a site that puts links out to all of the important and interesting news stories about Plano. Since there isn't one primary news source for Plano, David's site collects news stories from places like the Dallas Morning News, the Plano Star-Courier, and other websites that run stories about Plano. They're both still works in progress, but check 'em out. David's pretty excited about these websites and other ideas he plans to implement in the coming months. And I enjoy seeing him love the work he is doing so much.

Temple Trip

2009-05-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

A week or so ago we took a family outing--something I often want to do but rarely follow through on. We drove to the Dallas Temple and walked around the grounds with the kids. Evelyn was excited to point out the angel Moroni, look at the flowers, see the water (of a fountain that wasn't turned on) and watch a few wedding parties taking pictures. I enjoyed just getting out together as a family, which we don't do too much these days. It was also great to talk a little about the purpose of temples and how our family is eternal because David and I were married in the temple. Evelyn's favorite part, though, was discovering the white rocks next to the temple, which she promptly collected and carried around for a bit before I had her put them back. Then we went to Moon's LDS Bookstore nearby and let Evelyn pick something out; she chose a CTR ring.All in all it was a fun little outing, and I'm hoping to plan and carry out some sort of family outing each month.

As a side note, Edison likes scrunching up his nose like this, along with little snorts, especially if I do it to him so he can mimick it back. :P

Our Budding Starlet

2009-05-04T17:44:00.000-07:00

We went to a ward activity on Saturday with the theme "Dancing with the Stars" of Plano 1st Ward. Several different dance numbers were performed, like "synchronized swimming" by members of the Elder's Quorum and a spoof on the California Raisins by the Scout leaders. The girls from Primary got to do a number, which Evelyn enjoyed. They did a dance routine to "Broadway Baby" and got to dress in whatever pretty clothes they wanted to. And that night they gave the girls dress-up gloves and tiaras, which Evelyn liked, but she didn't know quite what to do with the gloves, since they were big and likely to fall off. [As a disclaimer for the video, I was standing at the back of the Cultural Hall holding Edison in one arm and the camera in the other hand, so it isn't the highest quality.] Anyway, I hope you enjoy watching our "Broadway Baby"! [front row in the white dress and bright pink pants] :)

Someone commented to me afterward that Evelyn and Calli (the girl on her right) are little Shirley Temples, and we'd better watch out when they're old enough to go to stake dances. Oh, and we're thinking about signing Evelyn up for a little dance class through the city this summer--something we think she would really enjoy.

Strong legs

2009-04-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

It seems like Edison has always had strong legs; he started wanting to put weight on his legs when he was only a few weeks old. (Maybe most boys are like that, but it's certainly new for me.) Now he's discovered that he can hold himself up when leaning against furniture. And he loves it! At first he could do it for about 10-15 seconds at a time, but today he did it several different times for at least 5 minutes. So I won't be surprised if he's an early walker....

Latest Adventure

2009-04-08T18:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, so most of you (the few who may read this blog, anyway) know about this, but I'm starting a preschool. I got the idea from my sister, Suzanne, who is doing a preschool co-op with some friends, and I am really excited about it. Occasionally I wonder what I'm getting myself into, but for the most part I'm just pumped about classes starting. I'm going to do one class during the summer (June and July) and then two classes starting September (assuming I can find enough students...). I think it will be a really good thing for several reasons:

1) Since Evelyn will be there, too, she'll be able to do preschool, something I don't think we'd be able to do otherwise. And I'm excited for her to learn new things and interact with other kids on a regular basis.

2) While I'm not in it for the money, it certainly will be nice to add a little bit to our pocketbook.

3) I'm looking forward to having something for me to consistently work on. I have a hard time getting and staying motivated with some things, but doing preschool, where others are paying me to teach, will more or less force me to stick with it and do my best.

4) I also know that I'm going to learn a lot. Right now I'm reading a book about classroom management and discipline that is opening my eyes to a number of things, most of which can also be applied to parenting. (The book is called Teaching With Love & Logic, and there's also a book called Parenting With Love and Logic by the same author.)

David is excited, too, and is the "business manager" (and technically the owner since it's registered under his name with the county). In other words, he takes care of the things that I'm either intimidated by or don't want to do, like marketing and keeping the books. And Evelyn can't wait for it to start. Several times she's asked me if preschool is starting tomorrow, or talks about "when I go to preschool."

Now I just have to figure out what to do with Edison while I'm teaching....

Mmm ... solids

2009-03-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Edison is a good little eater and gets pretty excited when it's time to eat cereal or veggies (especially peas). What would life be like if we all got so excited about something as simple as mushy barley cereal?

Daddy Daughter Date

2009-03-05T18:57:00.000-08:00

Last Friday David took Evelyn out on a Daddy-Daughter Date, and they both had a great time.

pre-date excitement

Evelyn was so excited about it and kept asking "Is Daddy home yet?" throughout the day. And even though the anticipation of getting a treat may have been one big reason for her excitement, I know that she just adores David and loves spending time with him, especially one-on-one. Their date consisted of getting doughnuts

and then going to a mall with a great play area. Pretty simple, but just what a three-year-old likes.

Extreme Makeover: Hinckley Edition

2009-02-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

I've never had much of an eye for decorating things, but a month or two ago I really got an itch to start rearranging furniture. The first room we did was our bedroom, so now there's room for a table with my sewing machine. :) Then we moved Edison's bed into Evelyn's room (now dubbed the "kids' room") instead of having it in the dining room. I was at a loss for what to do in the living room, though, so I enlisted the help of Suzanne (my older sister). She lives in Utah, though, so it's taken many emails, pictures and phonecalls, but I now love our living room. I didn't realize before how bad it used to be, but looking back at pictures I can see how many interior design no-no's I had committed. So thank you, Suzanne, for all of your help! David and I both like the room a whole lot better now. And even though it's not completely finished (I'm still going to make some long, gold curtain panels to frame the window, as well as put some words up on the wall next to the picture of Christ) I don't want to wait to share it. So here are some before and after pictures of the living room.

BEFORE

(the pictures were like this because I always meant to hang the quilt up on the wall but never actually did it)

AFTER

This my favorite part of the room--it's what you first see when you walk in the front door and when you enter the room from the hallway.

I know it's difficult to really get a feel for the room without being able to see it 360, but it looks good in real life!

Love that mouth

2009-01-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

Edison loves his mouth. Whether he's chewing on his fingers, thumb, a toy, someone else's finger, or the recently discovered rice cereal, he loves having things in his mouth.I can't tell if he's going to actually be a thumb-sucker, like Evelyn, because he doesn't seem to favor his thumb over anything else. But we'll see. Another new thing is that we finally decided to sleep train Edison so that he could put himself to sleep. After one night several weeks ago when he was inconsolable and cried for about 2 hours, finally falling asleep around 1 a.m., I was nervous about how he would do once we actually stopped walking, bouncing, pacing, swinging, etc. with him to put him to sleep. (Yes, it was getting pretty ridiculous.) Well, to my surprise he has done great! He only had one or two difficult times falling asleep and since then it has been pretty easy. I wish we'd done it long ago! And I've found that one thing that helps him go to sleep with little to no crying is ... giving him something to chew on. Go figure.

Melt my heart

2009-01-15T18:08:00.000-08:00

Evelyn (like most toddlers, I think) likes to draw out bedtime and will usually come out of her room--often multiple times--after we have tucked her in and turned off the light. Most times I can tell she's really fishing for a reason to be out of bed, but tonight she came into my room, smiled, and said, "I just came out to smile at you," and then turned around to go back to her room. Talk about a great mommy moment! :)

Quick overview

2009-01-05T19:16:00.000-08:00

It'll probably take a few posts to catch up on the past few weeks, but here's a quick overview of what we've been doing--there's more to come in the future.

We had quite a road trip over the Christmas holiday. We rented a minivan with David's parents and left for San Diego early, early on the 18th. We got to CA in the mid-afternoon of the 19th and were able to go to Patrick (David's youngest brother) and Michelle's wedding and all of the festivities on the 20th.Then we drove from San Diego to Springville, UT on the 21st and got to my parents' house around 9:00 that night. We spent the next few days there and had a lot of fun visiting with my parents, Suzanne and family, Christine and Jeff, grandparents up in Ogden, friends, and so on. It was a packed few days but very enjoyable. Then we packed up yet again and took off for TX the day after Christmas. When all was said and done I think we spent around 70 hours in that van. 70 hours! Thankfully, Evelyn was a marvelous traveller. Edison, on the other hand, was not such a fan of being in his carseat, so there were some less-than-pleasant stretches with him crying. He got better at falling asleep on his own by the end of our trip, though.

As always after a long trip, though, it was good to get home. We wish we could have visited longer with family and friends, but we're glad to at least not have any more road trips planned for the near future. :)

Did you know...

2008-12-14T11:40:00.000-08:00

A fun tag, feel free to do it if you'd like. To participate, just copy and paste in your own blog, and bold and italicize all of the things you have done.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Ran a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Seen Mount Rushmore in person
101. Learned to play an instrument
Have fun!

Growing

2008-11-30T18:51:00.000-08:00

After what seemed like awhile of Edison being too small for most of his clothes, he is now growing out of a lot of his 0-3 month outfits. I was sad to see him get too big for the cute raccoon outfit (it was my favorite), but at least I got a picture of it before he royally messed it up (if you catch my drift) just a couple of hours afterward. Oh, well. It was cute while it lasted.

I thought it would be funny to see if Edison fit in Evelyn's doll stroller, and sure enough, he did! It was a little snug, but before I got the camera he was actually laughing and seemed to be enjoying it. Evelyn had fun pushing him around for a few minutes, although the picture above has a look of "Are you actually doing this to me, Mom?"

Daddy/Daughter time

2008-11-30T18:37:00.000-08:00

Evelyn loves playing with her daddy, so she really enjoyed all the long weekend when he didn't have to work. At one point, after playing with him a lot of the day, he needed to work on a few things, so I thought I'd take her to the library (which she always loves). When I told her we could go to the library, she asked David to play with her but he said he couldn't. Then she looked at him and said, "But I need you to play with me!" It about broke his heart, but I eventually convinced her that we should go to the library (which she did enjoy), although she probably would have preferred to play with David. :)

This weekend they played Primary,
acted out stories, danced, went "shopping," played doctor, and so on. Evelyn was in heaven, and David enjoyed it too.
Evelyn now likes to wear her "pretty white dress" when she dances with her animals and/or Daddy, and sometimes she pretends she's either getting married or dancing at her "wedding party." For how upset she was the first time we had her try on the dress, she sure loves it now. She even wanted to wear it to church this morning, but it's not exactly the best dress to be running around in during Nursery.

smiles and laughs

2008-11-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute video that David took the other day of Edison. :)

Three Years Old

2008-11-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

It's now official: Evelyn is three! She had a great birthday (helped by the fact that she actually got to bed at a good time the night before). As could be expected, she loved opening presents and getting to play with them.

The hit of the day was definitely a set of cooking tools from my grandparents, Oma and Opa. Evelyn kept running around saying, "I love this! I love it!"

I've also decided that I'd like to keep up the tradition I grew up with where you get to choose what's for dinner on your birthday. So for Evelyn's birthday dinner we had chicken nuggets, french fries, rolls, and applesauce.

dress-up clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Alford

a fun apron and chef's hat from the Coxes

lining up and counting frogs from the Coxes

love that cupcake

2008-11-02T18:56:00.000-08:00

We got "tagged" to do this by Christine and Jeff. We thought it might be fun. Marie's in regular type, David's in bold

Four random things about my husband/wife:

1. He can't touch his shoulder with his hand (left shoulder, left hand; right shoulder, right hand) / She's 4 inches shorter, but her arms are longer than mine
2. He enjoys long solo road-trips in complete silence / she enjoys doing home repair
3. He talks in his sleep / she introduced me to most of my favorite movies
4. He's the life of a Winnie-the-Pooh tea party / for a class once, she made a working camera from scratch

Four Movies I could watch more than once:
1. Oscar / definitely Oscar
2. The Court Jester/ yep
3. Emperor's New Groove / same
4. Ever After/any number of MST3K movies

Four TV shows I watch
1. Dora the Explorer (library videos)/ Political clips from Saturday Night Live
2. Monk (occasionally online) / same
3. Are you smarter than a 5th grader? (every once in a while, online) / (it's a fun date night)
4. That's pretty much it

Four places I have been
1. Stuttgart, Germany / Yap, Micronesia
2. West Point, NY / Nashville, TN
3. Liechtenstein / Washington, D.C.
4. Nauvoo, IL / St. Louis, MO

Four people who email me regularly
1. David / Wells Fargo
2. Suzanne / OpinionJournal.com
3. Kendy / Kendy
4. Kenneth (mission letters) / Facebook

Four foods I like to eat
1. Ice cream/ ditto
2. Fruit smoothies/ chocolate chip cookies
3. Beef stew and dumplings / Marie's meatloaf and twice baked potatoes
4. Chocolate / good Texas BBQ

Four places I'd like to visit
1. David's mission (Guam and Micronesia)/ I'm all over that
2. Europe with David (anywhere's fine, but especially Germany) / Germany
3. New Zealand/ a cruise--anywhere's fine
4. Disneyworld with the kids (when they're older)/ Jerusalem

Four things I am looking forward to this year (Now till November 2009)
1. Feeling like I have a handle on things/ Patrick's wedding and Christmas in Utah
2. Visiting with family for the holidays/ figuring things out professionally
3. Kenneth getting home from his mission / getting to know Edison better
4. Evelyn outgrowing frequent tantrums (I'm hoping)/ reading some good books

Pictures

2008-11-02T16:34:00.000-08:00

Edison, in my opinion, is getting cuter all the time. He's starting to vocalize a little more, which is fun. And he's still got that great smile. :) So here are some pictures of him and a few with Evelyn.

Halloween

2008-11-02T16:27:00.001-08:00

Being the unfestive people that we can be sometimes, this was actually the first Halloween that we dressed up Evelyn and took her out to get candy. She was excited to wear her pretty white dress from my sister Christine's wedding reception, and she said she was a fairy. :)

We took her to the Trunk-or-Treat at our church building. She was pretty shy at a lot of the cars, but she did say "trick or treat" most of the time. As was expected, the most exciting part was getting to look at all of her candy and start eating it. I also had fun dressing Edison up in a little pumpkin jack-0-lantern costume that we had. He looked really cute, but he wasn't too sure about it.

Creativity

2008-10-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

It's interesting to see some of the things that Evelyn does and the way that her mind works sometimes. For example, she calls her mittens "oven mitts" and pretends her toy bins are swimming pools for "the guys" (aka--her dolls and stuffed animals).

And this morning she was playing the "piano" by hitting beaters on a book--she likes the metallic ring that they make when she hits them and says they're making music.

She also uses her bed as a bus, a boat, a car, etc. depending on what game she's playing, like the picture below. She and all of "the guys" are on the bus after playing school.

Ahh, the joys of being 2 (almost 3!).

Can you guess who picked the ensemble?

No Question

2008-10-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Looking at baby pictures of Evelyn at this age, I think it's pretty obvious that she and Edison are related.

Happy Boy

2008-10-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

While Edison has definitely learned how to cry to truly be heard, most of the time he is a pretty happy little boy. He has such a sweet temperament and has been a pretty smiley baby from the get-go. I just love his dimpled smile; it makes me smile every time (though maybe not quite as big at, say, 2:00 in the morning).

I also love seeing Evelyn and him interact. This morning Evelyn said that she calls him, "Sweet, cute little Edison." She just loves giving him hugs and kisses, checking on him when he's crying, asking why he has the hiccups, etc. And more often than not, he smiles at her when she's around him. I hope this means they'll be good friends as they get older, although I know it's going to rock Evelyn's world once he starts getting into her toys....

Conference Tent

2008-10-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

This was one pretty successful venture. Evelyn has taken recently to reading stories out of the Friend. We have months of the Friend that she has practically memorized the stories out of. Well, in the most recent one, there was a story about kids who decided to be like the people of King Benjamin, and build a tent facing toward the prophet, and watch Conference from it. So as not to be to rowdy, they named it the "reverence tent" and brought scriptures, old Friend magazines, and other supplies for watching Conference.

Evelyn thought this was a great idea, and we did, too. So watching Conference at Grandma & Grandpa Hinckley's house, we set up a tent with some pillows, blankets, dolls and snacks. She loved it. She stayed quiet and occupied—if not for the entire time, then at least as long as can humanly be expected of a toddler. I think it helped that I, dutiful father that I am, conceded to watch/nap/snack from the reverence tent as well. This was a much more successful solution than last year's taking turns and only catching half the talks.

Trial Run

2008-09-26T17:05:00.001-07:00

After seeing this on a friend's blog, I thought I'd give it a try to post a slideshow of pictures. The most recent ones I have loaded on my computer are from Mom's trip out here (sorry Mom and Dad--I know you've seen all of these pictures already). Enjoy!

Mom's visit

2008-09-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

We have been very lucky the past week and a half to have my mom here to help. It has been wonderful. Evelyn has loved playing so much with Grandma, housework has actually gotten done, we've eaten really well, and it's just been fun to be able to hang out and visit with my mom.

She's leaving early tomorrow morning, so it will be back to reality for us. I may go into shock that laundry and dishes don't magically get done, and I'll actually be the one to change all of the diapers during the day. But I suppose it will be good to get things more back to "normal," and I know that Mom is ready to get back home. We have sure enjoyed her time here, though.

Edison Dean

2008-09-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

As many, if not all, of you know, Edison Dean Hinckley joined our family on August 29th. He was born at 3:22 p.m. and was 5 lbs. 12 oz. and 18 1/4 in. long. He was about two weeks early, since his "official" due date wasn't until September 11th, but he decided that he didn't want to wait.

So far he has been quite a calm little guy who doesn't cry much. And Evelyn just adores him. She loves being able to help in any way that she can, although sometimes she tries to help a little too much.

I'll be sure to post another entry later giving labor details, for those who want to read them, but suffice it to say we are thrilled to have Edison in our family and are grateful for his safe arrival.

Where's the manual?

2008-08-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

I don't know exactly what I thought being a mom would be like, but I'm finding out more and more that a lot of it is just "wingin' it." For example, on Monday Evelyn had a really difficult day (well, mostly the afternoon) but had a lot of fun spending time with Grandma in the evening. So, how did the day end? With a wipeout on hardwood floor that left Evelyn with a big fat lip, hurt teeth, and just very sad. So when David and Evelyn got home (it happened at David's parents' house while I was at home), I find her crying and blood on both her and David's clothes. As the mom, Evelyn wants me to comfort her, but other than holding her and singing a few Primary songs, I feel pretty helpless. It seems like, as the mom, I should just know what to do. We did get her cleaned up and calmed down enough to go to bed, but David and I were also pretty worried. Luckily, though, our brother-in-law Brady (a 3rd year ER resident) was in town and answered our questions about Evelyn's mouth and whether or not we should be worried. Evelyn's fine now, thank goodness, and it's made me realize that even though parenting doesn't come with a manual, we do have a lot of other resources to turn to when we don't know what to do. From family and friends to prayers and the scriptures, we don't have to feel helpless. We just have to know where to turn when we don't know the answers. And I should probably also accept the fact that, like it or not, Evelyn is just going to be our guinea pig in a lot of things as we learn along the road of parenting.

Joining the Bandwagon

2008-08-17T17:55:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm finally doing it--joining the blogosphere (or whatever it's called) in an attempt to ... um ... see if anyone is interested in what's happening in the Hinckley household. Sarcasm aside, though, I am looking forward to (hopefully) keeping this updated with photos and stories of our daily happenings. I'm sure there will be a lull when baby Edison joins our family in a few weeks, but I'll get the hang of this at some point.

Anyway. This is just the beginning, but here's to jumping on the bandwagon!