My latest sewing projects

a reversible nursing cover.  It took me about 3 1/2 hours but it turned out very nice!

Chayla's baby quilt.  It's not finished yet but I added the outside maroon border to a panel and started quilting!  It's going to be beautiful.

Back of the quilt.

Chayla Fairy Palace

Chayla Fairy Palace

November 23 - Hello Chayla!

D-day

Today could be the day.  The day that we find out what our baby's gender is!!!   We're so excited! 

Just had to say it...

Okay so there's only 2 more days of school until Thanksgiving break!   Not that I'm counting down or excited or anything....  Okay so Mashed potato day (forget the turkey) is going to be fun with family down in Hurricane!  And that means December is around the corner. Wow.  We already have some decorations up for Christmas.  And we got the piano on Monday.  We spent about 3 hours last night and Monday night playing duets. I love it!

It's November already!

Ok. Shame on me, I haven't updated in quite a while. We've been having lots of fun adventures lately. Of course, back in October there was Halloween. Our ward party went great. I helped serve soup and refill water pitchers. There were about 300 people which was twice as many as expected but it was great. Jake stayed home b/c he just had some dental work done and was feeling icky. Thankfully, we are done with the dentist for a while (knock on wood).

I am officially in the 2nd trimester now at 14 weeks today!!! I am definitely feeling better and have more energy. I even exercised yesterday! For the past 4-5 weeks the nausea has been letting up but I've also been taking Zofran which has saved me the ordeal of being sick at school.

We've had family around quite a bit which has been fun. My brothers, Roman and Remington came up for a swim meet and stayed with us then my mom came up the next day with a friend and stayed with us. It was lots of fun. And last night we had Jake's dad and sister over for dinner.

Which reminds me, we've been trying some fun new recipes. I made parmesan chicken a couple of weeks ago and it was delicious. I even made my own bread crumbs for the batter. Yesterday we tried a Jam-filled almond muffin recipe (I Highly reccommend it) and and Slow-cooker Salsa Chicken (also very good). The muffins are delicious. We made them from scratch - some with strawberry jam and some with blackberry. You put the jam in the middle then sprinkle almonds and sugar on top :)
The chicken was way easy. Put chicken in the crockpot with taco seasoning, cream of chicken soup and salsa and cook. Then serve over rice or baked potato with sour cream. Or eat in a burrito.

So life is good. It's getting cold - snowed all weekend but that means Christmas is close! Speaking of Christmas, we are getting a piano today. Jake's mom is giving us her piano since they don't play it. We are very excited and grateful. It's going to be nice to have piano music in our house :)

3 days Down, 31 weeks to go!

Good news! I discovered haw to not feel sick. I just take my pre-natals with dinner instead of breakfast and eat pretzels before even getting out of bed. No wonder pregnant women gain weight, I feel like I eat all the time - and craving salty things mostly, like pickles and chips. But I haven't thrown up for 3 1/2 days now and I'm LOVING it!

I went to a math conference today and I have to say that I miss teaching math. It was one of my toughest subjects last year but I loved it. I've been looking into some different masters programs and BYU has one opening up this fall. It's called STEM - Science Technology Engineering Mathematics. It sounds amazing! We'll have to see how things go. The baby would only be about 3 months old but classes are one night a week so not too bad.

Trick or Treat?

TWINS!!!!


Just Kidding. You've been tricked!

Peanut Hutchings

Haha, sorry, I just had too. So we went to the doctor today for our first 8 week appointment and all went well. I had the fun girly checkups and we talked about diet, exercise, prenatal vitamins and all of that good stuff. One thing I learned is that your body can only absorb 500mg of calcium at one time. Interesting. At the end of the appointment I mentioned that I had noticed a little bit of spotting (blood) so the doctor decided it would be a good idea to have an ultrasound and make sure all was well with baby.

We had our appointment about an hour ago and it was AMAZING! To say the least. We got to see the tiny 1.43 cm blob against a black section ( my too full bladder). Right away we could see a little twinkle that is the heart. It twinkles b/c it is pumping blood at 150+ beats per minute. We even got to hear it! Oh, it was so special. I can't believe that is inside of me - and going to get much bigger soon. We learned that the baby gets its nutrients right now from the yolk sac (the lunch box). Then he checked to see if my ovaries are healthy -they are and we were done. I hope none of this grossed you out but it was so amazing to me. Our bodies are incredible. Men are totally missing out on the ultra-sound experience.

So, in truth, there is only one baby. I think that's all I could handle anyways!

Love, Jake and Char

Pregnancy Predicaments

So far all is well on the baby front. Except for my sudden food finicky-ness. This last week the strong sense of smell and nausea kicked in. Sometimes I feel like eating everything I see and sometimes just the thought of food makes me sick. And of course it fluctuates throughout the day from hour to hour making life adventurous.

Jake and I went to Tucanos last Saturday which has a salad bar and they bring around meat. Well, let's just say after getting rid of my breakfast I was very hungry and had plenty of room so it was a great lunch. Oh, and they have THE BEST mashed potatoes EVER! I think I ate 5 servings.

The worst of it happened today when I pulled up at school and made good friends with the weeds. It was embarrassing because a guy walked up to me from his car to see if I was all right. So I found this bit of pregnant humor and thought it was pretty funny:

How to have morning sickness in public
• Pretend you're looking for something deep inside your purse — then snap it shut and discard.
• "Want to see my impression of Old Faithful?"
• "I'm sorry about your shoes."
• "Maybe next time don't eat your Pad Thai so close to me, okay?"
• Act drunk.

(Sorry to be so personal and gross :)

First Fortune

Jake and I went out for Chinese food on Monday. It was delicious. I haven't had chinese in a long time. I discovered that fortune cookies are in fact truly foretelling. Mine said that "Redecorating is in your future". And indeed it is. Especially after we find out if the baby's a boy or girl... if we find out!

Baby Names

Okay so here's a new boy name possibility: Jacob Giles Hutchings

Since Jake's name is really Jacob I think the baby could go by Giles. It is a name he's always wished was his middle name and is his mother's last name.

I think I like it. Of course Jacob has been the #1 baby name for the past 3 years at least. But he would be named after his dad and could go by Giles which is original.

A Sesame Seed in the Oven

It's official! I am pregnant and we are having a baby! I am 5 weeks pregnant and the baby is now about the size of a sesame seed. It is so exciting to read about how the baby is growing so fast. This week the baby's heart will start beating and vocal chords will develop. Wow! Five weeks and I don't really feel that different yet. Possible names so far: Boy- Sparta Hutchings Girl- Chayla Hutchings or maybe Chaylin (Spelling is way up in the air for both girl names)

First dr. appointment is in 3 weeks. Looking forward to it!

New School Year -- MUSIC!!!

Bear Lake

Jen and Mike get Married

Just a quick note about Jen and Mike's wedding. They got married on July 18th 2009 in the Draper Temple. We got to be there for the ceremony and it was beautiful. I love being in the temple and being reminded of how it felt when we were married. They had a nice luncheon afterward and a Hawaii reception the next week. I was a bridesmaid and I am so happy for them.

Hiking the Y

We decided that we wanted to go on a date and do something outdoors and active. So a hike was the logical decision. Jake suggested hiking the Y which is kinda ironic since both of us are now graduated and never hiked the Y while we were at BYU. Never to late. We got ready- I insisted on taking 6 water bottles and my camel as well as hats and sunglasses. I remember on our last hiking trip we were under prepared and I got heat stroke.

This is us at the trail head in front of the big Y. The hike was really nice. I was reminded how out-of-shape I am and had to stop often for water but it was great being up high where we could see everything. I felt bad for packing so many water bottles b/c we didn't need more than 2 and Jake ended carrying everything - such a good man.
When we stopped for water we took the opportunity for pictures. This is Jake as the Arrowhead model. I think we should send it in with a proposal that he be their new spokesperson. Below is one of me making a silly
face as usual. On the way down the trail I got my
duck impression going. Thankfully there were no pictures of that one.

We made it to the top of the Y before we knew it. We had sandwiches and enjoyed the view. The Y itself looks like the just whitewashed the mountain side and its not as big as you'd think. Of course by this point I look entirely like a lobster but that's the face I was born with so gotta love it.














Jake has been teaching me how to wink. Of course he is way better at it than I. I love the way he smiles at the same time.




"What? You've never seen a man on a rock before?"

Bridal Shower Luau

Reunion and Cali Trip

Road Trip Pre-quel

Alot's been happening this month. We've been BBQing, swimming, having family over - i love that we can have people over at our new house. Rip is now in Scotsboro, Alabama on his mish, and Roman and Rem drove to Cali for a month to visit Gpa Carl. And, Jake and I are driving down to Cali this weekend right after the reunion to visit Gma Vicki. I am so excited! It will be our first long road trip together and a lot of fun to show him around Bakersfield where I grew up. So, I'll be writing again soon to tell all about it.

First Sunburn of the Season

Ok, so I have a pretty painful sunburn all over. But that's because it was sunny today so I laid by the pool and read my book for about 40 min. Then I was hot so I went swimming and then laid out to dry. Now I look like a candy cane. Oh well it was totally worth it. And I got a haircut. Not too short, just a trim and some layers. I'll post some pictures later. Other than that, I had lunch with Jake again :) and tried to fix my bike and hung shades in our bedroom. Now it's movie time!

Fabulous not so Summer day

Today has been a nice day. This morning I cleaned the car. It needed it SO bad. Now it is vacuumed and shiny and lemony! Then I exchanged a curtain so the ones in our bedroom match and took Cafe Rio to Jakes work and had a picnic with him. It was great. Cafe Rio + Jake + Sunshine = Perfection. Then I rushed off to my blood appointment and I was actually able to give blood. Many times I am anemic. It only took me 5 min. once we got started. All in all it was a fabulous afternoon until I tried to read my book in the hottub and got rained on. The weather here is so bipolar. I am reading the Peaceful Warrior - I highly recommend it and the movie too.

But more good news- we have a new bathroom floor, countertop, new paint and the mirror is coming tommorow. If you didn't hear, our Master bathroom mirror fell off the wall in the middle of the night ( a few weeks ago) and damaged everything. Not to mention scaring us to death.

Last Friday (29th) was my last day of school. I will miss my students but I am ready for the summer and so were they. We started vacationing already. On Saturday we had a BBQ with Brian and Lee. We made the bbq chicken burritos, grilled pineapple, corn on the cob and fruit. Top it off with a bit of swimming and it was a lot of fun. Right after the bbq we got in the car and headed to Park City. We spent the evening with Jake's family up there. We went out for pizza (see slideshow) and headed back to the lodge for more swimming and hot-tubbing. The pool water was so warm and cozy. We had some awesome canonballs and chicken fights (never go against Joe in a chicken fight). Then we dried off for Playdough icecream (lots better than it sounds) and a movie. This morning we hung out at the lodge for a little bit, Jake and I played Yahtzee (he won of course) and then headed back to Provo. We stopped in Provo Canyon to hike up to Bridal Veil Falls where we got engaged 2 yrs ago. It was a beautiful hike and nice to be outdoors. I love the summer time!

Birmingham Alabama Mission

Rip went to the MTC 4 days ago to begin his mission in Birmingham Alabama. His farewell was on Mother's day and both he and Mom spoke in church. I sang a Mother/Daughter song with her and it was a beautiful day. We played games after church and took family pictures. Then we saw him off last Wednesday and now he is in a whole new world. Haven't heard anything yet but i hope he is doing great!

Dinosaur Museum

In December 2008 we went to the Museum of Ancient Life in Thanksgiving Point. I had heard that it was the biggest dinosaur museum in the U.S. and it is definitely bigger than it looks on the outside. We learned about geologic time, saw tons of fossils and animals. Jake showed me trilobite fossils and told me how he used to hunt for fossils when camping with his family. As you can see from the pictures the dinosaur fossils were very impressive. They put many dinosaurs together based on the structure of fossils that had been discovered. The T-rex is huge!
We had a lot of fun! I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't been.

Our Story

We met on a bus in February 2006 on our way to BYU. And got married almost 2 years later! TBC...