The Many Faces of Brayden

We got rid of our satellite tv several months ago. Now all we have is Netflix and DVDs. It was something that I was very nervous to do because I was worried that we'd be miserable without it. But I realized we were only watching tv in the evenings because none of us are home during the day and we were paying all of this money for something we hardly used. Not to mention what I watched was not the greatest (Teen Mom, 16 & Pregnant, KUWTK, Sister Wives, yeah all junk). The amazing thing is we have not missed it one time! We're perfectly content to watch Netflix or all 10 seasons of Friends that we have the box set of.

Brayden loves Netflix. There are so many shows for him to watch on there. The problem is, before Netflix, he wasn't allowed to play with my phone. Now, we have a cord that he can plug my phone up to the tv and watch Netflix on the tv. Which means he's become quite familiar with my phone and how it works. It also means he has some unsupervised time with my phone while I'm cooking or doing dishes or what not. He's been known to call Nana, unbeknownst to me. He even left her a voicemail practically hollering at her if she could hear him. "NANA YOU CAN HEAR ME?!" Guess I need to teach him about voicemail.

He also knows how to get to the camera and he takes literally like 30 pictures in a 2 minute time frame. After he's gone to bed, I will find my camera roll full of pictures. Most of them are of the house. His room, the living room, etc. But sometimes he figures out how to turn the camera around and take some pictures of himself. I laugh out loud when I see these.

  Oh, kids & technology these days!

I have finally made a facebook page for my blog. Go check it out here and like it!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hutton-Family-Blog/371656889628826

Family Time

We've had a weekend full of sunshine, fun, and family! Yesterday, Brayden played in his pool outside for a little bit. We fill it up and then turn the water off and he just thinks that's the craziest thing ever. I mean, we've got plenty of money, we can pay for the water to run ALL day, right Mom?!

Mom, something's wrong - the water's not coming out anymore

Remember how I mentioned back 2 weeks ago that baby Ella was finally here and that I wasn't able to hold her while we visited her in the hospital? There's this little thing called life that has gotten in the way since she was born and I haven't been able to get my hands on her BUT . . . today I did! Oh it did my heart good.

I'm just going to go ahead and admit, I have a pretty serious (ok, life consuming) case of baby fever right now. But I'm trying to be that thing called, what is it, oh yeah, responsible and wait. And it ain't no fun! There are just so many things I need to get accomplished before I have another baby. I know the whole saying of if you wait until you're ready you'll never have another one, but I just think now's not the right time for us. Anyway, I don't need to bore you with all that no fun stuff. Suffice it to say if I can see this sweet baby fairly often, I might be ok.

This was also Brayden's first time to meet Ella. He was pretty impressed! He kept rubbing her arm and then he'd kiss her on the head. He kept saying "Look at that sweet baby girl". The funny thing is, if you ask him if he wants a baby at his house, he says "No I not want a baby at my house, I not like babies, they pee pee and poo poo in them pants!". So, we're all in favor of waiting for a baby. :)

I also got to see this sweet boy. He is so sweet and so cute.

And of course, sweet Emma. Brayden seriously loves this girl. When he finds out he's going to get to see her, he loses control. He asks where she is every 5 minutes and gets so excited. I love that he has so many sweet cousins that he can grow up together with.

By the way, why does my child make so many weird faces when I take pictures? We need to work on that!

We had such a good weekend, and the best news is, I still have 2 more days off! Woohoo!

Healthy Living

I figured it was about time to do a healthy lifestyle update. I don't like to say diet because I seriously want this to be a lifestyle change for me. I feel like diet is a temporary word, it's something you do for a little while and then you stop. My goal in making these changes is that it just becomes 2nd nature to me and it becomes my way of life.

My eating is going well. I still try to only eat fruits, veggies, low fat cheese, nuts, and whole grains. I have found one area that I need to improve on. Lately, I've considered the weekend just a free-for-all where I can eat whatever I want. That is definitely something I want to change to one cheat meal a weekend. I can do really well when I eat at home. But take me to a restaurant and it takes every ounce of willpower I have to order something healthy. I mean, I'll be honest here - I usually don't. Unfortunately, we eat out a lot on the weekends so that's where I mess up. Starting with this weekend, I will officially be putting in more effort to only cheat 1 time.

I'm doing well on exercising too. At first, I was doing the Couch to 5K program Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and doing the 30 Day Shred video Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and taking Sunday off. Well, Tyler borrowed Insanity from a friend and I thought I'll probably never have another opportunity to do it, I'll put the rest of my programs on hold and do this one for 60 days. Woah! That is a serious workout. There are times when I feel like I'm too fat to be doing it - like maybe it's for people who are already fit and just want to tone up? At least, that's what the people in the video look like. But honestly I feel like I work harder doing that than doing my other stuff so I'm keeping at it. Tyler and I took some before pictures when we started and did our measurements. You're supposed to take pictures and measurements every 2 weeks, and our first 2 week update will be Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes. :/

Even though I've put my Couch to 5K program on the shelf for now, I really want to do a 5K. I'll probably start training for it again after this. I don't know why that's such a dream for me, and a really recent one at that, but it's just something I'm determined to do. My dad's a runner - he runs many miles a day, every day, in the rain, in the heat, no matter what. I have A LOT of his genes so I'm hoping I got this one and I just need to tap into it.

Feel free to give me any good healthy recipe ideas or exercise pointers! :)

Mid Week Randomness

I'm linking up with Megan over at In This Wonderful Life today and giving you some Mid Week Randoms. Feel free to join in!

* Tonight is a GNO for the women in my Sunday School class and I am so excited! A night away with friends with no kid is just what I need.

* My child is currently obsessed with rocks. He found a rock down at the barn that was pretty cool and it has created a frenzy. Lucky for him, his dad already had a small rock collection going (perhaps where his rock obsession gene originated?) and gave him some of his cool rocks. He's also gone out and picked random, pretty ordinary rocks from the yard. He's got them all lined up on his windowsill.

* I'm still working on my healthy lifestyle. I'll do a post about that soon. I was doing the Couch to 5K Program 3 nights a week and the 30 Day Shred 3 nights a week. However, my husband borrowed Insanity from a friend and he's doing that so I decided to join in and do it with him. We've been doing it a week and a half and I can definitely tell a difference in my endurance. I'm not fit in any way, shape, or form so it's pretty hard to keep up. I'm determined though!

* We've been taking a lot of the same meals we used to make and "healthifying" them. One night this week we made jambalaya. We used to just buy the boxed kind, but we made it homemade this time. We used brown rice and turkey sausage and put a lot of veggies and spices in it. It was surprisingly delicious and tasted pretty much the exact same! It's been a lot easier to eat healthy this time around. My only problem is weekends - I want to cheat so bad on the weekends, and I usually do! I'm determined to change that to 1 cheat meal a week instead of a cheat weekend.

* My sister is leaving for the beach Saturday and is not coming back until Tuesday. I've taken Monday and Tuesday off since she won't be here to watch Bray and I'm super excited! I'm trying to plan fun things to do those 2 days. Since we just went to the McWane Center and will probably be going to the zoo either this weekend or next, I'm trying to think of some other places. I've thought of Treetop, Chuck E Cheese's, or IJump. We'll see where we end up!

That's pretty much all the randomness I have right now. Have a great rest of the week!

Weekend Recap & Baby Ella

It's been pretty quiet around here lately. We've had several weekends in a row where we didn't have any plans, which has been nice since we're about to gear back up for school.

Last Saturday, baby Ella was born! We went to the hospital to see her and got there right before she was born. I wanted to take Brayden, but we decided against it and now I'm glad we did because we had to wait a little while and then once she was born, she stayed in the nursery for a while. Emma and Asher were so sweet when they met her. I love the last picture where Asher is trying to pull her hat down. :)

 Hopefully we'll be able to go down one weekend coming up so Brayden can meet her.

This weekend we went to the McWane Center on Saturday. It was Shelby County Day so all Shelby County residents got in for half price. Mom and I took Brayden and Bentley and they had so much fun. Brayden's most fun things were driving the spaceship, digging for dinosaur bones, playing with the Light Bright, petting (well not really, he was too scared) the stingrays and sharks, and so on and so on.

He was quite obsessed with the fish statue on the water floor. It was hard to keep him away from it.

The funniest part was right when we were about to leave and Brayden went in the house where you're tall on one end and small on the other. He had no idea anyone was watching him and he started looking in the tv monitor and dancing and saying repeatedly, "I'm Brayden Thomas Hutton, I'm Brayden Thomas Hutton." It was so funny!

Brayden is slightly obsessed with Vulcan ever since we watched fireworks at Thunder on the Mountain. He insisted I take a picture of him in front of the Vulcan that was in one of the exhibits.

He really loved it. It's almost too much to do in 1 trip, especially for a preschooler. Bentley loved it too - her favorite part was the kitchen. She loved the cash register and especially loved the play money in the cash register. If you know her in real life, then that's par for the course; the girl loves money!

Sunday we had lunch at my grandmother's after church. I have lots of cousins on that side of the family and there are 5 girls who were all born within about 3 years of each other. We cousins aren't popping them out as fast as our moms did so there are 3 kids now within a 3 year timespan. Poor Colton was not ready to wake up from his nap when he got there so he struggled a little at first, but he warmed up by the end. There was a train table that they all thought was great. By the time it was time to go and I wanted to get a picture of all of them, Brayden's "no nap" fatigue had taken control of his body and emotions and there would be no picture taking for him. Bentley and Colton were sweet to each other and participated in the goodbye hugs. Oh well, maybe I can get a picture of all of them at Christmas. It's hit or miss with a bunch of preschoolers! :)

4th of July Weekend

We had a great 4th of July weekend and we maximized our long weekend in any way we could. We started our celebrating on Wednesday night. Brayden and I went to Walmart to get some groceries and to see the Big Kaboom that the city of Chelsea puts on. It was so nice to go ahead and get my grocery shopping out of the way for the weekend. We also really enjoyed the fireworks and our time just the 2 of us. Not really, Brayden said those fireworks weren't as good as the "Columbinana" ones because Brookie & Nana weren't there. Who cares about ole Mom?!

Thursday was pretty dreary which was just a glimpse of what the rest of the weekend was going to be like. We didn't have anything planned so I told Brayden we could go somewhere fun and he picked the "playstore" aka the toy store. We went over and picked Mom up and then headed up 280. We stopped and ate lunch at Mooyah's, a new burger place in the Colonnade. Then we headed to Toys R Us at the Summit. I don't really know how long we spent in there, but it felt like 4 hours. This is what I heard about 342 times: "Look at this Nana!" "I want this for my birfday Nana!". He ended up picking out a new truck that carries cars. Then we stopped at Pinkberry and got a little fro-yo.



We headed home after that and went and got Tyler. Then we headed to Birmingham again for Thunder on the Mountain. We stopped on the way and got some pizza. Then we went and parked RIGHT UNDER Vulcan. We parked at about 6:30 so we had 2 1/2 hours before the fireworks. We climbed in the back of the car and ate our pizza.

Strangely enough, Brayden did very well with the wait. We got out of the car and walked around and played with his new truck and the Leap Pad. The fireworks were AMAZING! I love our fireworks at Liberty Day, but I have to say Birmingham has them beat by A LOT! They were just a tad too loud, however, when you choose to sit right under them!

Friday we went down to Montgomery to visit with the other Huttons. I love watching Brayden, Emma, and Asher play together. They seriously have so much fun. I love playing with Emma and Asher too. I was the only adult playing doctor and hide and seek with the kids. :) Hey, they'll only be this age for so long and before long they'll want nothing to do with me so I plan on soaking up every bit of time I can. Emma would say "Aunt Beffy" and I loved it. Asher would say "I hold you now" when he wanted me to hold him. Talk about melting my heart!

Saturday morning I lost my nomination for "Best Mom of the Year" when I jokingly threw the remote at Brayden and instead of it hitting him in the leg like I planned, it hit him right in the eyebrow. Blood started pouring and I started freaking. Luckily our former ambulance driver doctored it up and it didn't look too bad the next day. I've decided not to pursue a softball career, though.

Not long after that, Bentley came to stay with us for about 4 hours or so. We all 3 played camping for a little while, which means we sit in Brayden's tent and act like there are monsters outside. Bentley's not used to our monster talk though so she kept looking outside the tent like there really was monster out there. I decided we probably shouldn't play that game with her. She started crying asking for her mom a little later so I decided to try and see if she would take a nap. I tried laying her down in my bed with Brayden and me, but her face turned so red I thought her head would pop off. Then I took her into the living room and started rocking her and singing to her and . . . SHE FELL ASLEEP! I have never been able to put her to sleep so I was pretty proud of myself. Not to mention I got to hold her for a solid hour and a half, which also has never happened. It was a great weekend to be an aunt!

Sunday, we went to church and went home to eat lunch. I tried to get Brayden to lay down and take a nap but clearly he had other ideas. I finally let him get up and we went over to Nana's. He helped me wash my car and did such a good job.

Danson and his dad have been over at my Mom's working on her bathroom lately so they were there and Brooke and Bentley came after Bent took a nap. I tried to take a picture with Brayden and Bentley, but this is how it turned out.

Yep, that's my eye you see back there.

I love the 4th of July. A lot of times I take for granted the fact that I live in the United States. I was watching the news over the weekend about all the Cairo, Egypt stuff and I just thought, what would it be like if there was fighting and shooting going on in the streets of my town? I am so blessed to have been born in this country and I am so thankful to the men and women who have made sure it's not like so many of these other countries. I hope to never forget how great my nation is.

Liberty Day 2013

The weekend before the 4th was Liberty Day in our quaint little town. It was the 28th (I think) year of hosting Liberty Day and we love it! I love it more now with Brayden than I ever have before. Friday night, they closed Main Street and had music and a few rides for the kids. We mainly went down there to listen to Austin Foster.

After he finished, we got up to let the kids do the inflatables. They loved the inflatable slide.

Brooke went down the slide with Bentley a few times, but then she was tired of doing it. She handed Bentley to me like I was going to go down with her. Haha! So I handed her to Papa (my dad) just joking around that he was going to take her down it. HE DID! It was so funny! He loves these kids!

It started raining not long after that so we headed on home.

Saturday morning, we headed down to Main Street to check out the street vendors. Tyler got some of the Finkleas' famous Kettle Corn that he LOVES! Brayden caught a t-shirt that was being shot out of a t-shirt gun and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. Never mind that it's a Jack's shirt and it's a size adult medium. :) We also rode the train together.

We left after that because we were hot. We went with Mom, Brooke & Bent, & Jordan to eat Mexican in Alabaster. I let Bent play with my phone to keep her occupied and this is what my camera roll looked like.

We got back to town just in time to watch the parade. Bentley got to ride in the parade.

That evening, there was music at the football field followed by fireworks. We took a picnic dinner of chicken salad and fruit and had an absolute blast! We got there first and soon after Brooke and Danson came, along with Jared, Tracey, and Aubrey. Danson's sisters came too so we had a great group!

Poor Danson's chair broke not long after this and he hit the ground! It was so funny!

The fireworks were great and Brayden loved them. It was an absolutely fantastic weekend!