HaPpY bIrThDaY gRaNdMa!

 Today was my mother's birthday. Last night we swung by their trailer (they were camping in the State Park) and gave my mom her gift. We gave her a pot of flowers. The kids all wrote messages on the BYU blue pot with paint markers. She loved it. There two pictures are of my sons climbing up the tree next to their trailer. Man, they are little mountain goats. 

Then tonight after the kids last Jr. Jazz game, mom and dad took my brother's family and my family out to dinner. We had a great time. It was a little late, but totally worth it. The kids had fun being with grandma and each other.

 Mr. M wanted to play Rock Paper Scissors. That is his new thing. I had him play with my brother. M was totally cracking us up. He would wait until my brother made a shape then change his to win. OR, just say, "Oh, my scissors totally cut your rock!". I appreciate my brother for playing and having fun.

So, thanks for a great dinner and good company.

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you.

Later...

Yes...

So,

Apparently I am currently not committed to blogging anymore, and I won't apologize for that. However, I will give some background to the pictures below.

This picture is from my son's birthday. His birthday was on the 15th. We have a great little family party. He really enjoyed his gifts which included a new MP3 player, a nerf gun or two, some jammies, and other little toys. 

 Yesterday, with some friends over to visit, our family went for a hike up a side canyon out near the river beach. We did this as a family several times before Eli was born, and it was nice to be out hiking again. When we reached the end of the canyon, we stopped and snacked on string cheese, crackers, apples, and water.

 This is a picture looking back down the the canyon up which we had just hiked. In fact the next several pictures are of that very thing, the canyon. See if you can spot the kids in many of them.

 We had to scale a section of the canyon that had recently collapsed. It was interesting to see and caused us to remember that hiking requires care and being observant of your surroundings. My littlest son sure had a fun time. He refused to be carried the entire way up, so the going was a little slow, but he was in heaven climbing and playing.

 After we got back home (we also explored the abandoned White Sands Missile Base facility here in town as well), my mom and dad came to see my birthday boy and bring him some more goodies. He got new shoes, unders, and a digital camera. He LOVES his camera and I have already had to unload it once. Thanks grandma and grandpa Hughes.

It has been a wonderfully relaxing weekend, and the best part?
There is no school tomorrow!

Later...

Happy Birthday to Me

So, the day began with a wonderful good morning kiss from my wife and only got better from there.

School went really well today. After a field trip yesterday, I was a little apprehensive to see what kind of behavior I would  get to deal with. My class was a teacher's dream.

After our bi-weekly trip to the library (which was totally awesome), we returned to the classroom to find that a wonderful mother of one of my students (and no, it wasn't my wife) arrived with cake and ice cream for all the students. It was a very thoughtful gesture, and one that I didn't thank the giver for enough (Thanks Cindy). 

After school, I was able to simply relax at my desk and grade a few papers before heading home. I had the opportunity to work with one of my voice students this afternoon. After the lesson I was able spend a little time playing with my kids.

My wife started making a wonderful dinner. My favorite dinner is Philly-Cheese Steak sandwiches. She also made steak fries. Yum. We had a good friend over to share dinner with us.

After dinner, we opened gifts and had homemade cheesecake. Now, THAT was some seriously tasty food.

It truly has been a wonderful day. Thanks for all the well wishes, love, cards, and everything else.

Later...

Happy Birthday Little Man!

July 20th was a special day. It was the day we celebrated having a special little boy as part of our family. Our little two-year-old son is quite the piece of work. Surprisingly, as a two-year-old he has a great command of the English language and isn't afraid to use it! With sassy coming out of his mouth frequently, we, as his parents, are always on on our toes trying to make sure he is being a good boy! We love him to pieces. For his birthday we went simple. We invited  Ms. D, the Robertson's (they were out of town- we missed them), my brother and his family, and my parents. All my son wanted was "blue". So I dug in the decoration box and found some blue crepe paper, a birthday sign, and some mini-gift ornaments.

The finished product turned out like this:

For his birthday this year, my parents were stumped as to what to get (us too). So, knowing how much my little man loves to play in the backyard dirt, they went and hand-sifted 6 large buckets full of sand to put in his sandbox turtle. It was an instant success and he spent all his time until dinner was ready digging and playing in it.

After dinner, the kids "escaped" out the side gate and turned grandma and grandpa's Ranger into a variety of "ships". My youngest son wanted to play too so he put on grandpa's gloves and ran around. What a silly boy!

When my wife asked my son what he wanted for his birthday cake all he would tell her is "Blue". My wife went on-line to look for ideas and this is what she made from what she found (by the way, I LOVE it!):

My son was funny. As I was helping him hold it for pictures and to blow out his candles, I pretended to make it attack him. He thought that was pretty funny and was giggling and asking "again?". I love this little kid!

After singing and blowing out the candles, we opened gifts. He got quite a few gifts as you will see in the next few pictures: A shirt from us...

Hotwheels and sour gum from Auntie Shlisa...

A wagon from us (and Grandma Hughes...sort of...)

My parents also gave him a plastic lawnmower and a cars magna doodle.

The grand finale was from us...

While my wife and I were looking on-line for gift ideas we came across this. Can I just say that my son has put many a mile on it since he got it. It only holds upto 50lbs. so my older two kids can't ride and my third child is right on the border. What is also cool about this track is that built into the ramp are two Hot Wheels race tracks. Even though it took a bit to put it together, it was TOTALLY worth it. I need to add a video of him riding it down and putting the car back on to ride again. He is funny to watch because he will go down and then chant "Again...Again...Again..." while he puts the car back on the track and does it again. In fact, he has become so advanced he will actually go down backwards now. Good thing we have insurance...


Anyways...

This is Auntie Shlisa loving on our baby.

Had to share this because it really made me laugh. It was an accidental creation by my wife for my oldest son. C-R-E-E-P-Y to say the least. After I pointed it out to him,he thought it was the coolest thing ever and had to show everyone at the party the "crazy face".

My amazing wife dishing up the cake and ice cream with my daughter and her friend helping. It really was a great day.

So, here is to you little buddy. We love you. We are glad you are ours. We hope and dream big things come your way! Thanks for the laughs, the loves, the kisses, and the life lessons. Happy Birthday son, Happy Birthday!

Later...




P.S. These are a couple of pictures my wife and I snapped of the evening sky. I like how they turned out.

Today Was A Special Day

Today was a special day in the Hughes household. My daughter turned eight-years old today. I can't believe how fast my baby girl is growing up. I am so proud of her. Her teacher has nothing but good things to say to her and I can't begin to describe how much of a helper she is for her mother.

This evening we had my parents over for dinner (she wanted chicken fettucini, sauteed mushrooms,  and my brother and his family swung by for a while. My daughter was definitely spoiled (just as she should have been- lol). She got plenty of Littlest Pet Shops, clothes, and a new comforter for her bed (We are planning to paint her room and really girly it up this spring).

I sure do love my little baby girl. Have a great year my princess! I love you forever,
Love,
Daddy!

Later...

Happy Birthday (to ME) and Other Random "Stuff"

Okay, Okay, So being 35 isn't as bad as I thought. Maybe it is because I can take comfort knowing that my older sisters and brother will ALWAYS be older- Bwahaha! I had a great birthday. The kids at school told me that their gift to me was to be good all day. They did great. Thanks my dear class. At the end of the day my wife brought cupcakes to share with the whole class (thanks Chow Hound- they were tasty!). My mother had also came in to the building that morning while I was in faculty meeting and hung up a big sign that said" Smile Mr. Hughes! It's your birthday!"- lol. It was stuck to a banner of smiling pumpkin pictures. She had also left a box of full-size candy bars on my desk to share with the students. After school I just headed home knowing that I would have to come back over fall break to finish planning and "stuff". I didn't care. It WAS my birthday after all! :) For dinner I helped my wife make Philly Steak and Cheese. Y-U-M-M-Y! She makes a great sandwich. My mom was able to come over (my dad was in meetings for most of the night). While dinner was cooking, we watched the construction going on outside our front door. My little E was running around enjoying the noise and bedlam. He was really enjoying moving the pumpkins from the steps and benches to the lawn.  The two littler boys were totally enjoying watching the big Kat and diesels. They sat right on the edge of the lawn and were riveted on the action. I think they were REALLY wanting to go and play in the dirt that was being dumped. I guess I can't blame them. It isn't everyday that you get to see that while sitting on your front steps! After dinner we hung out outside for while. It was a beautiful night and the kids were having a blast running  around being crazy. We even got to help a lady who got stuck in the soft dirt (the construction company didn't block off the road where they were working so people kept driving down the road in the soft dirt- a 4-wheeler almost wrecked because of that!).  Then it was PRESENT TIME! YEA! I love that time. Not because I get things, but because the kids are SO funny. They fight and argue about which one I have to open first. It just makes me smile. I have to brag a bit. I am pretty good about holding a present and knowing what is in it. This drives my wife crazy and she usually tries to mask a gift so I can't figure it out. Last year at Christmas she was sneaky. She wrapped it in diapers and THEN wrapped it. Sneaky, dear, sneaky! I did great guessing this year- See below!  My Guess:  some new clothes... Actual Gift: Levis  My Guess: What DVD has come out that we've been wanting??.... Actual Gift:  Prince of Persia My guess: This one is a gift card.... Actual Gift: i tunes gift card I was  stumped on my new wallet My Guess: This one is a bag of Candy...Reisen's ... Actual Gift:  Snickers  I received many cards (thanks to everyone who sent them) and I was very cautious with Great Grandma Milletts (because she gets a little crazy with birthday confetti- lol). They were all great.  My Guess: Something  Mom made me... Actual Gift: Yep, a matchbox full of memories--wallet size pictures from my last birthday to this one. It was wonderful to shuffle through all the picture memories that have happened in one year. I think that was one, if not the, best gifts I received this year. Makes we want to go and look through all the pictures again right now. I think it is a well known fact that I am not a big fan of cake- AT ALL! (Cupcakes sometimes, but very little icing and NO RED- BLECH!) However, that said, I do enjoy a good hunk of German chocolate cake- I love the frosting too-- yum!). Every year my wife, bless her heart, makes me a tasty german chocolate cake. She was nice and only put 6 candles on it (granted one was a candle that said 30- HOW RUDE!). I didn't even get to make a wish before the little boys had my candles blown out. You can see from the picture they didn't even wait for a picture- lol. Love those crazy little boys of mine! (You might also be noticing that a small corner has a little handprint in it. While I was posing for the picture, my little E grabbed a handful to nibble on while he waited for his cut of the cake. It was a good day.  We finished the night snuggled up on the couch watching Ghost Hunters.  I feel asleep by 10:30pm- HOW LAME IS THAT? I AM getting old! lol Thanks to my little family for making it such a wonderful, special day.

Other Random "STUFF" starts NOW! While we were outside watching the road work, my little M  picked up our Bocce (Bot-chee) set, went  over to my wife and asked, "Mom, can we play Chewbacca?"  She told him he had to go ask Me.  He came and asked me the same thing.  Oh my word, we were laughing our heads off. The other kids got quite the kick out of it as well!

The other night I was playing peek-a-boo with Eli.  He was just giggling up a storm.  It was fun to watch. He is such a cutie. He was laughing, and laughing, and laughing.He was getting good at it too. I love those special moments with my babies. What a joy they are! Thursday  we went to my parents and helped to pick apples (that was after I spent the day working on the yard AND going to the school to finish planning, etc.). We got a crude load of apples- we are going to make apple juice this year. Yum. After we picked apples (Greg and Heather came and helped pick too) we had the Parsons over for a hot dog BBQ. It was a little embarrassing when I ran out of propane. It was all good though. We just cooked most of them over the fire pit- See it WAS a good thing I put that in. We had a great time and even roasted some of the GIGANTIC marshmallows they were selling at Wal-Mart. They are about 2" by 2"! They are HUGE! It was great way to end the evening. Thanks for coming Parsons family! :) Friday was GET MY COLLEGE WORK DONE day! I got most of my chapter read, worked on my Case Brief #3, and wished that my classes were done. I am SO ready for this program to end. I am really learning a lot, but I am tired of it cutting into my family time! :( It's okay though. Only 7 more months and 1.5 semesters! YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Today is Saturday. My vacation has slipped away from me. I do feel like I accomplished at lot however. We got the garden winterized (just need to till it up), the air conditioners out of the windows, and the lawn watered for one of the last times this year.  I was up (with my wife) at 4:30am to head out to bountiful baskets. They changed the delivery time from 10am to 5am. That was quite the shock this morning. Even though it was early, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! We got a TON of fresh produce. I love that we can bring that here every other week. Those of you reading that don't order- you really ought to start! For a $15 contribution you get at least $40 worth of produce! We were able to be home by 7:30am and just finished a great breakfast as a family and now we are all doing our "own thing".- lol I have more college work to finish before we head over to the church at 1pm to clean it. Then the rest of the day is ours. We are planning family movie night (with treats of course). I LoVe my LiTtLe family! Hooray for family! Later...