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.