Fuzzy Ears

We like her fuzzy ears

Alara's Newborns

 Here she is, sweet baby girl 8 days old. So far she is not very fussy and a good eater. Alara was very cooperative for pictures. For the past three nights she has only woken up once to eat and then gone back to sleep. Hopefully this is a trend and we can keep up. I love having a newborn baby around. 

First Look

Zach brought the troops to come see their newest baby sister after school on Monday and everyone was eager to take their turn to hold Alara. Ruth was a little hesitant at first but warmed up to the idea. Even Lincoln loves to hold and hug "(A)lara", we just have to be careful how much love he shows her.  I've got lots of good baby holders for this new little angel. She's a keeper.

this might be my favorite shot 

Announcing the Arrival

Announcing the arrival of 

Alara Eden Hutchins
Born Sunday October 4, 2015
7:12 pm
7 lb 13 oz
21 inches long

Excerpt from Zach's family letter-

“10-4, good buddy.” Those are the words with which Uncle Aaron decided that our daughter, Alara, would be born today.  (You didn’t think we’d have a visit from Uncle Aaron without one or two life-changing moments, did you?) As noted in my previous epistle, Alana was hoping—even expecting—for the baby to be born last Monday night. So each day past that date was just a little bit more difficult for her to endure, mentally and emotionally. She’d decided to ask the doctors if they would induce her tomorrow on Monday 10/5, but they were all full up that day and offered her a choice of Sunday (today) or Tuesday, 10/6. I preferred Sunday, for work reasons, but I told Alana that whatever she decided was fine with me. Alana couldn’t make up her mind and asked Aaron—just arrived, on Friday afternoon, for a weekend visit—whether he wanted to hang out with us on Sunday or watch our kids while we went in to be induced. He volunteered to stay with the children, so here I am in the hospital, waiting for a baby to be born. Still no baby (three hours since I started writing this letter), but Alana’s water has broken, and we’ve walked several miles in the hospital corridor (which feels a little like short track speed skating; every time we turn, which is frequently, I make a little “whooshing” sound); contractions about five minutes apart now (at 12:30). The wallpaper in her room is vaguely yellow, and as we’ve circled the room she puts her hand on the walls and says, “Look at me, I’m in the yellow wallpaper!” That’s a joke about a famous American short story—about a woman with postpartum depression—and I laughed uproariously when she said it. How lucky am I, to be married to a woman who makes learned literary jokes while in labor?

The rest of the story-

Since things were progressing slowly after about 4 or 5 hours they started the pitocin drip and things began to move along (read: sharp increase in pain level) . Not being one to value toughness for toughness sake, I opted for an epidural. I've told people before, I think the Lord prefers that I get an epidural and continue to have children than be so scared of labor I'm going to stop having kids. I The artificial contractions produced by pitocin are more painful than the natural ones too. The epidural was put in slightly off center and took quite a while to kick in on the left side but once it did there was nothing to do but wait and let labor take it's course. I started pushing around 6:55 and after seven contractions she was out at 7:12 pm with minimal trauma or aid from the doctor. It is standard procedure now to let the mom hold the baby right away before they whisk her away for shots and cleaning to they placed her on my chest and we snuggled. It is so tender to hold a baby right after they arrive into the world. Alara didn't think it was so great however. She fussed off and on for the first 24 hours of life, but has calmed down since. I was happy and tired but I look forward to a short recovery since things went smoothly. 

Dr. Worford, L&D nurse Dawn, Baby nurse Mitchell

The first of many baby pictures to come:

Mac's Primary Talk

Mac did a super job writing his talk with Zach and then reading the whole thing by himself. He has only been in kindergarten for 3 weeks but over the summer became a fairly proficient reader. Here it is:

Mom and dad teach us to be obedient. They want us to be obedient so that we can go back to live with our Father in Heaven. Jesus said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments." We should obey because we love Jesus. I love Jesus because he created the earth. I love Jesus because he died for us so that we can live again. I love Jesus because he tells us when we are doing something bad or dangerous. I know that if we keep the commandments, we will be happy. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Three First day and a Photobomer

         Mac started Kindergarten last week and absolutely loves it. He was super excited to begin school at Ridgeview. This is due partially to his older brothers and partially because we have been talking it up a lot. The little smarty pants already knows how to read and write, add and subtract and even multiply a little bit but there is so much more that he will enjoy learning this year. During his first week he told me that he learned the seven continents and how not to exclude people. I told him that the seven continents were important but that not excluding people was even more important and that he would need to remember that the rest of his life. All three boys seem to be off to a good start. Gabe's summer math work has paid off and they let him move into 6th grade math. This is great since when he started at Ridgeview he was a grade behind, now he is two grades ahead. I know it will be challenging, but I hope they all have a wonderful year.

54 Years and still going Strong

I think people should be celebrated. Zach's parents just celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary last week and I wanted to make them a gift. I burned all the names of their grandchildren, 45 in all, on the back of a cutting board with the year they were married in the middle. (If I had waited another month I could have filled in the last spot with Fort Collin's baby #6, maybe I'll do that when I go out in  June.) What a blessing their marriage has been to so many people, not least of which is all their posterity. 
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!