Sis...Boom...Bah!

We had an early 4th of July celebration this year ( if that is possible ). We had the pleasure of having Julie, Cameron, and Olivia Brown over on the 2nd for dinner while they were in-town from Virginia. They are such good friends and we love their company, so we were really excited to have them over. I made homemade hamburger buns for the first time and they turned out pretty good. We had bacon cheese stuffed hamburgers, homemade salsa ( Julie's famous recipe ), grilled corn, fresh berries, thyme lemonade, and homemade vanilla ice-cream with raspberry sherbet and blueberries for dessert. It was soooo good! I made cute little place markers, paper cones for everyones chips, and 4th of July ribbon wands for the girls to play with. I was hoping we were going to eat outside, but the weather did not quite cooperate. Some how I forgot to take pictures of the food. Oh well. We all had fun talking and watching the girls play. We are always left wishing the Browns lived closer when they come to visit.






The next day we had Ryan's parents over while they were in-town. It was fun, we got to show them the new house and hang out all day. Ryan and his Dad and brother replaced and fixed all the main sprinkler valves, and I think it only took 3 trips to the hardware store. Jayna had fun playing in the yard with her "Maga", and she even got a big girl rack to play with, so she can help us in the yard. That night Summer and her family also came down and we had pizza and hung out. I only got this picture out of all of it though. I need to be better at remembering to take pictures.



Then on the 4th we woke up and went to the farmers market down-town. It is my favorite thing to do during the summer. I love seeing all the fresh produce and it is fun to have breakfast there as a family, except for the breakfast stands I always pick take forever to get you your food. We spent most the morning there and got green-beans for our dinner. Then we just took it easy for the afternoon. That night we had Marshall over and we had a great dinner. We had tri-tip, spinach and strawberry salad, garlic bacon green-beans, and pesto bow-tie pasta. It was the best dinner ever. We ate outside and the weather was perfect. It was a dream come true for me! Beautiful family, beautiful house, beautiful food, beautiful country. It was a full circle moment for me (not to be too dramatic or anything). So we enjoyed our dinner, played with sparklers, and waited for it to get dark. Marshall bless his soul, bought this huge box of fireworks. He originally wanted to buy a bunch of illegal fireworks and take them out to the salt flats, but since he does not have a wife I had to step in and be the voice of reason. So are compromise was that he could buy as many legal fireworks as he wanted and set them off in the court. The boys had fun burning their money and Jayna and I had fun watching them. We had leftover homemade ice-cream, and roasted marshmallows on the hot coals in the BBQ. It was a long three days of entertaining, but it was fun and what I live for.

Let Freedom Ring

I have the perfect house for the Fourth of July! Even before we moved in I knew I was going to have to go buy some flag bunting for the windows. I got a really good deal on these three, and will probably buy more for the upper windows next year. I got some great red, white and blue lights from my grandmother too, so I put them on the gate and fence going down to the basement. I picture all sorts of fun Fourth of July BBQs in our future, especially when we get a fence up and the yard done. Now I just need a flag to put on the house.

Finally

We are finally in our new house! I think about everything that could go wrong with a move did. Everything from our car getting stolen, to being homeless for two weeks, our truck reservations being lost twice, living at a dirty motel, a tractor being parked in front of our storage unit, and someone hitting our budget truck. You name it, it happened. I have to count my blessings though. As hard and frustrating as everything was and as much as I realized I would have made a crappy Job I am grateful that it was only a temporary trial. As Ryan and I sat in a motel room with Jayna asleep in her port-a-crib and the only things we had were what we could fit in our car, and the rest in storage, we could not help but get emotional thinking of all the people who have lost their jobs or their homes and have had to leave all their belongings to go take their families to motels or shelters wether self inflicted or not. It is a terrible feeling to have no where to live.

So our new house is slowly starting to feel like home. We have been in it less than a week and are still very much in the unpacking stages still. We are quit furniture challenged with all the room we have now, but I plan on working on that of course. I am excited to dive into another home renovation. I am hoping this will be my best work yet.

We have meet most of our neighbors in our little court and they all seem very nice and friendly. A couple of them saw us moving in at night and even came over to lend a hand which helped out a lot. The bishop was over at our house before we had even been their for 24 hours so we get the feeling this ward is on top of things. We went to church on Sunday and meet a few more people, the ward seems really great and has lots of children. I think there are at least two nurseries and three sunbeam classes.

I do not have many pictures of the house in fact the ones in this post are the ones the inspector took. So I will have to take more when I find the charger to the camera. The outside needs some cleaning and work especially the landscaping, hopefully we will get to some of it this summer, if not for-sure next summer.

MOVING!!!

So Ryan and I a couple months ago decided we were going to try and sell our condo and get a house. There were many things that led us to make this decision, but it was kind of out of no where considering we do not really have to move. Many of you know we have been working on and renovating our condo since the day we moved in, and will be doing so it looks like until the day we move out. So do to all the improvements we have made we were confidant it would show well, but did not know how long it would take to sell giving the economic circumstances.

Well we did not even have a chance to get a for-sale sign up. We got two offers in 6 days and our now under contract. Now in this market it is not over until the fat lady sings, but so far everything looks good. We have also had an offer that we put in on a home accepted and pending inspection etc it looks like we will be in a new place by the end of next month. We are really excited! Everything has gone so smoothly and we just feel really lucky and blessed. The home we are currently under-contract to buy is in Taylorsville just directly west of where we live now. It will still be a short commute for Ryan, although he may need to wake up 15 min before he needs to be at work instead of 5 min. I will post more details about our new home as soon as things are a little more concrete. I wouldn't want to jinks anything.

We have started packing up some of our first boxes and it just does not seem real. I had no problem leaving our home in Provo, but this is a different story. This was our first home we purchased, and we have put a lot of blood sweat and tears into the place. It is also the place that I brought my first little baby home to. If I could take the whole nursery with me I would. In-fact I have decided that Jaynas room will be the first room I do in the new house. It makes me too sad to think she will never remember the nursery that I painted for her while 7 months pregnant. I am going to duplicated it as much as I can when we move. I have been warning Ryan that there is going to be a lot of crying when we move. He laughs, but I am really serious. I think the whole thing has been stressful, because we have just decided to do it. It is almost like if we had to do it, it would be easier because we would not second guess ourselves about the decision.

So I will try to keep updating my blog here and there through the craziness of all of this, but I am sure there will be a period of time when we do not have internet hooked up.

Oh, if you are curious about some of the things we did to our condo her are some pictures we put up on the internet of it.

Life after Turning One

Life after the big B-day party has been crazy and great. Jaynas new hobby is climbing. She apparently has decided to skip Gymboree and go straight to free style climbing. We find her hanging off of everything and anything she can get her little toes on.





We also recently visited Wheeler Farm down the street where she got her first up-close look at all those animals that are in her bedtime stories. She was really amazed by the pigs. I always make the pig noises when their are pigs in her books and I think she was just really shocked that something other that me really did make that noise. She feed some sheep and horses and tried to mimic all the noises she heard around the farm. We have since been back with Dad twice and stop there any chance we can get.



Jayna has really enjoyed playing out on the balcony now that the weather is nice. Although we knew it was just a matter of time before she figure what items could fit threw the railings. So we have made numerous trips to our downstairs neighbor to retrieve DVDs.

Happy Birthday!!!

This year has gone by so fast! We just can not believe are little baby is ONE now. Jayna has been such a joy in are lives and we can not imagine life without her. All the trails to get her here were very worth it. She has amazed us with how well she has progressed despite her early premature arrival. Jayna as small as she is has such a huge personality that makes us laugh and wonder in amazement everyday at the things she comes up with.

This being our first birthday together not drugged or in the hospital I wanted to do something fun and exciting to celebrate our special day. I figured since it was also my birthday that I could get away with doing something a little nonconventional for a first birthday party. So don't ask me how I came up with it, but we ended up having a "HIp Hop" party and it turned out really great.



Jayna was all decked out in her Puma jacket, glitter shoes (courtesy of my aunt), initialized hat, and of course her blinging gold necklace I made her.



Ryan and I were an security detail with badges and everything. We checked people in at the door and made sure they had on their hot pink wrist bands so that we knew they were part of Jaynas "crew".





I decorated her highchair all cute for her with stickers and garland I made. Then behind her highchair on the wall I put up pictures of her imposed with different celebrities. The pictures were hysterical, and were my neighbor Holly's idea. Thank Holly!





We had a fun little spread of berries with whip cream, pita chips with spinach parmesan artichoke dip, pretzels dipped in milk chocolate with pink chocolate drizzles and sprinkles, and cupcakes in gold wrappers with fondant ones on them. I also spray painted tapes and records gold and pink and had them scattered on the table and around the house as decoration. All in all I thought it turned out really cute.



I have to admit that I impressed myself with the cake I made for Jayna. I had bought this giant cupcake cake mold a while ago and had done several trial attempts at frosting and decorating it, but it never turned out how I wanted it. So I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled this off the night before the party. Not bad for my first time using fondant. The pain was hand painting the whole bottom part with an edible metallic paint and dusting it with edible glitter. Some how along the way of thinking up this cake I also had visions of it spinning on a record player in the middle of the table. So after calling everybody and every place imaginable to either rent, borrow, or buy a record player or turntable that would not cost me more than $50 dollars I found this one on craigslist in Arizona the night before my mom and Mark were coming out and had my brother hurry and go buy it. It was only $15 dollars and it cleaned up well. He had to go to the ghetto in Phoenix to get it though, and he was pretty sure he gave the girl money to buy drugs, so it was pretty authentic for the party to say the least.



We have been teaching Jayna how to blow out birthday candles for awhile in hopes that she would be able to do it come her birthday. She is really cute when she does it and pulls a funny face when she blows. The only problem is she can not differentiate between the candle and the cake, so long after we took the candle away from her giant cake she was still blowing on the cake instead of eating it. It was really funny and we all got a good laugh out of it. She was not too sure about everyone singing to her, but she didn't cry or anything. After the cake had been on her highchair for awhile she finally dug in.





We played some fun games at the party too. I drew a picture of a gangster and you had to "fix the grill on Lil' Will" so I had gold teeth that you had to try and place on him like pin the tail on the donkey. We also played a slang game where you had to fill out on a sheet of paper the real meaning of all the slang words listed and then I had a jar of multicolored twizzlers that you had to guess "how many twizzles are in the jarizzle?" They were fun and tongue 'n' cheek and who ever won a game got a Jayna Berry signature perfume called Berrylicious. It was just dollar store perfume that I had changed the labels on. Then everyone got to take home a CD titled Tunes From the Crib that had hip hop music on it.





We had fun putting on the party and hope all those who came to celebrate with us had fun too. It was fun having my Mom and Mark out. Thanks for all your help you two.



Jayna is such a good baby, but I thought for sure if she was going to have a melt down her Birthday would be the day. She didn't though, she just partied the whole time. In-fact we were worn out way before she was. It got Ryan and I talking about her little personality and how it must just be how she is. We thought back to a year ago that day and how stressful and overwhelming her situation in the womb must have been and how none of it affected her. She was just fine her heart beat never even fluctuated. Even the doctors where shocked at how well she was handling it. She had no amniotic fluid, the placenta was already mostly deteriorated, and she was breech, but none of it bothered her. We love her little personality and know it is what helped her get here.



Jayna was the best little birthday present I ever got. I am not sure any present could ever top getting her, so I just hope we will have this much fun together every year on our Birthday.

Our Big Weekend of Celebrating

We started our weekend off by celebrating a family success on Friday by going out to eat at the Mayan. It is a fun theme restaurant that has a dive show, so we thought it would be fun to take Jayna there and see her reaction to the whole thing. She gave it mixed reviews however. She loved the waiting room because she could run around and there was lots to look at and touch and feel. The show however slightly worried her because there was lighting and thunder and people running all over. She was probably wondering why dinner is not as exciting as that every night.





Then Saturday was Valentines day so us girls woke-up to flowers. Ryan got me a real pretty arrangement of flowers and got Jayna a giant calalily. The flower was about as tall as she was. It was so cute to watch him give her the flower, and she loved walking around with it all morning. That night we went to Jasmines (a favorite chinese restaurant up the road) and got sushi and all sorts of wonderful food. It was a great day!







Sunday was also our 6 year anniversary so we had a special Sunday meal of Prime-rib, mashed potatoes, green beans, and salad. We cooked it perfectly as usual and Ryan made a really good homemade ague.

I cannot believe that we have been married for six years, but then at times it seems as though it has been much longer than that. All in all Ryan and I have been with each other for about 10 years. Our first date was even at a Valentines dance and we got married four years later to the weekend of our first date. It has been a wonderful life we have had together so far. I look back on everything that has happened both good and bad during the course of our marriage and relationship and am glade that he has been the one by my side through everything. There is no-one else I would rather share my greatest successes and worst moments with. He is the best father to Jayna that I could have ever dreamed of. Our life together just keeps getting better and better. I cannot wait for the next six years.

Walking Already!

Jayna started crawling back at the end of October and has been a little mover ever since. At Thanksgiving time she started to pull herself up on all the furniture and move her way around the room that way. Jayna has never had a walker or play saucer as per our pediatricians request. He told us that it is better for them to learn how to move on their own and that the more time they have on the ground crawling the better for the development of their little brains and motor skills. Since Jayna and I have the same birthday I thought it would be so cool if we also walked on the same day. I walked on my 10 month birthday, January 14th. The closer the day got I started thinking it may actually be a possibility that she would walk on the same day I did. She was starting to use the furniture less, stand up on her own in the middle of the floor, and show other signs that she just may walk at any moment. Then the little stinker showed me up and started walking 2 days before her 10 month birthday. She has just amazed Ryan and I. I cannot believe that the little baby girl that was born almost a month early weighing 5 pounds when we brought her home is thriving so well. We always thought she would be a little behind do to all the circumstances of her birth, but we were wrong. She is still very petite weighing only 18 pounds, but she is a clever and fast one. We are so proud of her! Our pediatrician was shocked when he walked into the room to a little walking baby. She makes me believe that anything is possible. I believe she can do anything she puts her heart and mind to. She is always so determined and has so much personality in her little body. We love Jayna and cannot wait to see what she will surprise us with next.

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!

Jayna for whatever reason has taken up growling. It may be do to the influence of her only sibling Red. The funniest part about it is that it seems to look like she knows she is being scary. We find it amusing, and it is also about the only thing we can get her to do on Que.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas here at the Hutchings home. This year we made chocolate covered fortune cookies for all of our neighbors, family and friends. They turned out really great and Ryan even got in on the action and was the dipper. We had a great time going around town with Jayna delivering our homemade goodies to everyone.









We were lucky enough to catch Devin before he went back home to California for the Holidays. We had him and his girlfriend over to exchange gifts and have dinner. It was nice getting to meet her for the first time and was fun visiting with him. I made my chicken and dumpling soup and we had spice bunt cakes and hot cocoa for desert.







We loved having lots of snow at our house this winter. It always makes the Holidays seem that much more special and festive.




For Christmas Eve we stayed home and had a wonderful prime rib dinner, just the three of us. It was great and better than any restaurant we could have gone to.





The next morning we had to wake up Jayna for Christmas. I have a feeling this will be the last year we have to do that though. We had to get up and going because we were having friends over for Christmas morning breakfast. Jayna was not as into opening the presents as we thought she would be. In-fact Red was more excited then she was to rip into the wrapping paper. After presents we had a great breakfast with Wally and his kids who were in-town for the holidays. We had two quiches, banana bread, and ableskievers that I make from a recipe that has been passed down from my ancestors from Denmark. They are fun kids and made for good company on Christmas.





We wiped Jayna out with all the excitement of her first Christmas morning.





Christmas night we traveled down to Springville to Ryans grandparents house for dinner. Jayna had fun visiting with her cousins and opening more presents. We were back on the roads to go home right as a storm came in, so it made for an exciting ride home.





For New Years my parents came out and we did our famous Lund New Years tradition of Fondue. My family could care less if we see each other for Christmas because New Years is our families big Holiday. Jayna needless to say loved having grandma and grandpa stay at her house and loved all the attention from uncle Mark.









We had a great Holiday season as a family and feel really blessed to have each other and all that we have.