3-year-old Biker

It happened, and it wasn't long in the coming. It just happened. After getting a balance bike for Christmas last year (so affectionately named "Gold Digger"), Abram has moved on to bigger and better things this year -- pedaling. 

 Steady...

Monkey see, monkey do. 

How appropriate that he's named this bike "Monkey Bike" (which is a vast improvement from it's original name, "Brass Monkey" that we try not to repeat in hopes that he'll forget it).

The only camera we had to capture the moment was the G9 (but video to come). So Bri got lots and lots of shots like this:

And this:

The kid is proud of himself. Priceless.

So thanks go to the following:

-California, for the warm Saturday weather.

-Sisters who stand anxiously ready to lend an uplifting hand or to kiss a scraped knee.

-Dad, who was blessed not to be far away for such an awesome milestone.

-Nana and Grandma Nae who conspired to give the amazing Christmas gift of bikes for each of the kids. It really has been the gift that keeps on giving. Thank you, thank you.

So Abram has been cruising the suburban sidewalks for almost a week and the neighbors are all amazed that a 3-year-old is on two wheels. 

Gold Digger has become quite a hot commodity.

Can Opener

See those bottom two teeth? They can pop open any pop-on lid of almost any variety. Oatmeal, ovaltine, take and toss drink cups, snack cups, all rendered useless when facing the matchless force of the "can opener." And this we've learned the hard way, what with all the spills, we would have the "Caution: Wet Floor" sign up continuously.

So, much of holiday vacation time has been spent redesigning the pantry with easy open containers on the top and metal cans at the bottom.

I failed to mention her knack of popping open shampoo and lotion bottles -- I'm not joking -- anything that goes, "POP" when it has been breached.

I shouldn't complain. Maybe one night while I'm making dinner, that sweet little can opener will come in handy.

i hope they call me on a mission...

Our current missionaries, Elder Erickson and Elder Penrod, are enamored with the Aboy (well, he is pretty bewitching). The elders have been over quite a bit lately for dinners and FHE, so they were unwittingly the first audience to Abram's 3-year-old rendition of the "Latter-day Prophets" song. Both Erickson (endearingly dubbed by Abram as "Dirk Derickson") and Penrod are about as charismatic as our boy, so you can imagine the big show and big trouble when they're together.

Dirk Derickson brought Aboy a tie (a clip on - perfect) that he can wear on his mission. And he is certainly looking forward to it.

Abram waiting patiently while the elders signed his tie.

Look at that handsome boy! The very next Sunday, Abram was so delighted to wear one of his own (appropriately sized) ties to church. And yes, he showed if off to anyone who would look.

Abram, we love how you are so eager to follow those who are a good example to you. Every Sunday during sacrament, you watch "the boys" bless and pass the sacrament. We love how you tell them, "good job with the sacrament boys" when you see them in the halls. It pleases us so to no end how much you adore Bishop Bramwell, and how you take every opportunity to go and shake his hand at church and around the neighborhood. He thinks you're pretty special too, considering he stops his car to talk to you whenever he sees you playing outside. You're very lucky that so many people love you and want to see you happy.

So, maybe in 16 years while you're on your mission (and maybe wearing this crazy tie), Dad and I will be missing you (unbearably so), and we will decide to find these pictures of you to remind us that at a very tender age you were already preparing to leave us and do the things the Lord would have you do. And I will suppose that is enough to comfort me. And if Dad says something like, "Come on old gal, he'll be home soon," I'll just start crying all over again, and nothing will comfort me then, until you return from your mission. 

In the mean time Elder Hulse -- Mom, Dad, and your sisters will be doing our best to help you along the way.

For the Love of OATMEAL!

Halyn loving her an instant oatmeal packet.
And I just swept the floor 10 minutes before this. Not that I expect a self-starter like this gal to understand that.

Punkins

After much coaching, yelping, and coercion, this is the best shot we got of the kids in the pumpkin patch. So I says to myself, "When they're all grown and caught in the tempests of the parenting sea themselves, we will look at this picture and we will laugh and laugh and laugh (at them, cause it'll come back around)."

But then Halyn went and did something like this... and totally redeemed herself. Chicks usually can't pull off the bald thing too well, but thankfully Halyn has a most expressive face that makes the baldness even more hilarious/adorable.

And then there's this guy who believes, and not wrongfully, that everything he does is a show and a gift to others. Expressive faces must run in this family. And flamboyance. Brian's side. Agreed.

Abram has settled into big brotherhood almost as well as little brotherhood. Either way, he's in the brotherhood. Aside from a few aggressive pushes of the wagon, from which Halyn may have suffered a minor case of Pumpkin Patch Wagon Whiplash, she enjoyed the brotherly attentions.

And then we thought it would be jolly good fun if we had a photo of all four in the wagon. Theory - good, execution - bad, very bad. A cart like this was entirely too small for so many bodies and a cart twice as big couldn't contain each of the children's opinions as to why the others weren't cooperating to make this photo op work. Message received.

Far more enjoyable of a time was the giant pyramid of hay. I thought it was pretty cool and Bri got some cute shots of the girls (minus Zooga, maybe next year) and Aboy.

The long trek up the hill, which looked hardly steep enough to get the better of Hulses like us. And though we did manage to summit the heights of the pumpkin patch, we were dogged and sweaty at the top. We waited quite a while under the guise of photo ops, though the true reason was to catch our breath.

Abram and Halyn were a lot like the game Whack-a-mole at Chuck E. Cheese's. One was up, the other was down. And the poor girls (Santi especially) spent most of their hike pushing one or the other down so as not to fall out of the wagon and tumble down the hill like a little lost pumpkin. Those children clearly needed a mother to keep them in line, but she was taking pictures and pretending not to notice.

As my grandmother used to say (and which was the farthest extent of her judgement on anyone), "Some people mija, some people."

Breathless from the trek and the view. And these girls are the best athletes of us all. It was actually a fun and simple lesson of endurance (if you can consider climbing a hill endurance, in a microcosmic sort of way).

 All recovered and loving each other.

Abram without borders, meaning he has little to no experience with falling off cliffs or rolling down steep hills. Happily, he did neither of those things during our visit.

Proof that I was present during this family activity. My kids often wonder where are the pictures of me. Well, I'll do a little better and remember to take a few. What was that I said about expressive faces?

Daddy convincing the sweetheart that pumpkins are fun and not for throwing or gnawing on.

The sweetheart wanting so much to understand Daddy's words, yet wrestling with the conflict raging inside, urging her to either throw this baby pumpkin or use her tiny teeth and gnaw the heck out of it, but not neither. Please, Daddy.

 Abram getting a good laugh at the girls (including Zooga) while in the maze.

More coercion to get this shot. Um, is that my baby daughter chewing on a straw of hay as if she's a midwestern farm boy? And she's the Cali girl of the group.

A much needed ride after a tiresome time in the maze. Were you guys ever going to come get me?

And then came Autumn with Grandpa Finn and Grandma Lainie. They met us at the pumpkin patch and stayed the weekend to watch the girls' primary program at church. The girls had a sleepover, and when I say "the girls," I really mean all of us had a sleepover because there were whisperings until the other side of midnight. And I don't want to rat anyone out, but as a clue their initials are: Marin, Santi, and Autumn.

Halyn getting some one on one. Lainie actually bought this outfit for Halyn's Bday. What a fun coincidence she got to see her wear it.

Finn's the man as far as Aboy is concerned. Though he continued to remind Grandpa (endlessly so) that he would like to go back to the Wyoming house to ride quads tomorrow. It's always tomorrow in his mind.

Thanks for coming up and making everything so much more fun.

And that's the end of pumpkin patches for at least one year.

All Carnie

The second annual Penny Carnival was even better than last year's (if one could even imagine such a possibility, and I still have to back date the post of the inaugural year!). I couldn't believe that all 10 kiddos sat for the picture above. And doesn't Grandma Nae look too happy to be the resident witch?

3 Strong Girls: Marin as Nike, Greek Goddess of Victory; Autumn as Pocahontas, Indian Princess; and Santi as a Sailor Sweetie, an American Icon.

Lyla (Snow White) and Abram Pumpkin Boy. 

I love how of all the crazy, scary, superhuman things Aboy could choose to be, he chose to be a sweet little pumpkin, well, jack-o-lantern, actually. It was also super handy that I had this particular costume in storage because both Marin and Santi had worn it before him (Halyn has no choice, she will at one point wear this costume). Abram's favorite part of the costume is how the front part was a ginormous pouch for candy. So he was sort of a candy stowing marsupial of sorts. Nice gig.

I'm not really sure what we dressed up Halyn as, but we thought she was pretty cute. Kimball in his little pirate pants kept me laughing all night. He was too cute for words. He looks as if he's singing a sea shanty in this picture. Where is his accordion?

The Bluest Eye. Santi helped keep little Andi a happy Tinkerbell. 

Marin refusing to stay my little girl. Refusing!

The costume parade followed no distinctive path, but the kids sure had a blast.

It's so nice to have a big cousin around to lift you up when you get tired. Even if you're over half her size.

One of the biggest hits of the night was Aunt Amy's haunted house. So we all agree (and I do so with a little chagrin and incredible envy) that Amy is the coolest Aunt of all. Of course, her booth just reemphasized that with the kiddos. The Little Tikes playhouse turned haunted mansion of many mysterious windows was all the rage if you were under the impressionable age of 11. Actually, I totally loved it and I'm only a few years past 20. 

The kids got the biggest kick out of reaching into each window and being told they were feeling eyeballs and brains and a beating heart, etc... Who wouldn't be convinced with Amy's weird and unidentifiable accent saying, "touch my eyeballs, my many, many eyeballs." 

The best was when Santi was feeling a chicken bone after Amy begged her to touch her "broken bones," and it caught onto Santi's hand somehow and it fell out onto the floor and all the little ones screamed. So funny. Now that's a haunted house.

Aunt Amy's delight. She was so funny hunkered down in that little playhouse. Have I mentioned she's about 6 feet tall? I know your next thought, and YES, I am the shortest of them all. I'm at the bottom of what we lovingly call the "family spectrum" while Joe towers at the top at like, 6'6? I don't know, I can't even think that high.

Their faces say it all.

The chicken bone drama.

Sweet Halyn and the Italian Stallion. So funny. Chris will that joke EVER die? I just couldn't come up with a good enough rhyme for Colombiano. So you'll either stay Italian or be like, the fumblin' columbian. I agree.

Muggas as a carebear. What matches better with those blue eyes than those pretty ruby lips? I'm serious when I call her "lipstick."

You can't tell from this photo, but this little Lyla adores me. I'm putting it in print so it will become true. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Emmers and Joe's bean bag toss booth. Look at those cute paintings! The paint was just about dry when the kids started tossing. Phew! Good job Morins!

Aunt Alli will always be famous for the donut game. I don't think anyone can and will ever fill these shoes. 

Kimball about to best this teeny tiny crumb. I love that kid!

Autumn and Sadie intent on winning it.

Abram was only, as always, interested in the donut. Although this year he did feign to play the game for the first few seconds and put his little hands behind his back.

Cam and Kath did a cute bowling booth that I apparently got no pictures of. I'm not sure why. Cam, as usual, was hilarious. All of the kids were able to bowl strikes since he shook the table to help knock over the pins every time. They loved it.

Auntie Boo and Uncle Michael played bingo. Only the big girls really played, the others just ate their candy bingo markers. My kind of game.

Bri and I had the fishing booth and let me tell you, it was my favorite. Those kids are so funny as they humor me on the other side of a brick wall. They so know what it's all about, but they cast their lines over anyway as if doing me the favor. Thanks kiddos. I loved hooking Frosty coupons and other little halloween treats onto their poles (or rods -- such a heated debate if you're ever at the house in Wyoming... it's NOT a pole, it's a ROD. Well, Ok. Sheesh!).

We had a special treat for Emmers and Squirts (Amy) and even though they are adults, we thought it would be funny to make them fish for them. Then Uncle Joe made a big fuss about what special treat he was going to catch. So he cast his line over and Brian OR I (and I'm not going to admit who) decided to clip onto it a dirty diaper (because we were standing next to the trash cans and thought we were so funny). Thankfully Joe is the best sport of us all. And his stellar sportsmanship earned him (count them) TWO frosty coupons. So see, it all worked out.

Grandma Nae and Conan O'Brien. Oh no? I guess he's just your average Joe, but to us, he's bigger than Conan. He doesn't look put out at all about the whole dirty diaper thing either.

Uncle Cam willing to look like this so he can have the outdoor heater all to himself.

The snuggles this girl gets is why she's enjoyed being the baby of the whole family for the last year. But baby elevensies is on her way!

See? All about the donuts. Never too many donuts. Thank you Aunt Alli for the many varieties of one of Aboy's favorite treats.

The birthday girls, Marin and Halyn, were honored with cupcakes and some presents since the family didn't get to celebrate with them a few weeks earlier. Cute outfits and toys have been added to their bounty. Thanks fam.

It seems we're getting into the groove of this carnival thing. What will next year's hold, I wonder. But I do know it takes half the year to recover. Thank you Grandma Nae for hosting another bewitching carnival. We all enjoyed ourselves so much.