Wow. Where do I start? We have now been in Kirksville for over a month, I have been in school officially for 3 weeks, 2 weeks of actual classes, Cooper had his birthday, BBQ's, get-togethers, kids new school, I haven't seen Emily a whole lot, I see the kids even less, how do I even have time to write? Let me explain.
Sunrise over the corn
Sunset over the other corn
I will start with the boring stuff--dental school. What a ride! I don't know how else to say it. On Friday (Oct 18) we had just finished our 2nd week of lectures and our teacher told us some numbers. 65, 42, 5. 65 hours worth of sitting in a classroom listening to lectures, 42 lectures to be exact, of those 42 exams we took 5 tests (well, the fifth was actually this morning). So, my daily schedule has been the following: wake up at 6, at school at 7, study till 9, class till 12, lunch till 1, class till 3-4, study till 6, family time/dinner 6-8, study 8-10:30, then finally sleep. Then Saturday and even Sunday were filled with study time. I have had to do this as we are getting 5.5 times the amount of information that our sister school in AZ (ASDOH) is getting in a day, in other words what we were being taught in a day, they would have a week to learn it. We had a test every third day. We just finished 5.1 credit hours in 2 weeks. If we are to keep this pace, that would put us at 40.8 credit hours this first semester. INSANE! In other words, this is going to be my life for a while. I remember that one of the doctors I worked with would tell me how they had 26 credit hours one semester, if only I could have it that way! We just finished our intro to Embryology/Histology, Immunology, Microbiology, and Pathology classes. Tomorrow we start Molecular Cell Biology. Who's jealous?
WHITE COAT CEREMONY:
"Jacob Hutchings, UVSC, Construction Management"
Now, I'm an official Student Dentist
Proud Spouse!
Me, Jake, Braden, and Kolby
Anyway, on to more fun subjects. We LOVE it here! This has been such an awesome place. The kids school is great, and they're making friends, Emily is really adjusting to the "country life" (something I thought was impossible), as hard as school is I am loving it. The babies are growing like weeds. Life is good.
Caught Red-handed
Triplets + Twins (1 week younger than triplets) = lots of babies
How pretty is that?
Bennett has actually taken a step and will stand for up to about 45 seconds with no assistance and he's getting his 4 upper teeth. Anderson is crawling like a normal human baby now, no more frog crawling, and he has gotten his 2 bottom teeth, and is pulling himself up. Taya is getting really proficient at crawling, she is waving bye-bye and smiling up a storm.
Anderson
Bennett
Taya
Cooper just turned 7! I can't believe how fast time goes.
Minion Party
Emily drove down to Columbia, MO (1.5 hours away) with the babies just so she could go to Sam's Club where she stayed for a whopping 30 minutes and came right back home because the babies were not having it, she did say that life was so much more fast paced, and she almost missed the pace of Kirksville. How about that? She's a country girl!
It's about time that I do another post that isn't political in nature, that way people will actually want to come and see our blog. As most of you know, we moved. Yes, we moved again. Yes, we moved again to another part of the country. Yes, we moved for the 6th time since we have had kids (in 5 different states and our oldest kid is 6 years old). Yes, we will move again 2 years from now, and yes we will most likely move 2 years after that move. Now, hopefully you can understand why we refer to ourselves as "Nomads". I do need to put this out there though...we HATE moving! It is horrible! I have so much envy for those of you who have moved once or twice in your lives. That must be super nice! I need to give a HUGE "shout out" to those of you who helped make this move possible from the cleaning, to the packing, to the driving, to the unpacking, to just being a support of our dream...THANK YOU!!!
A stuffed truck!
Good Bye ABQ!
Some of the things that will be missed most about ABQ, besides the great friends of course:
The daily hot air balloons
My job...Smiles for New Mexico Kids
The sunrises over the Sandia Mountains
Well, we are finally in Missouri. We had a little car trouble in Stratford, TX where one of our brake lines in the Yukon decided that it had enough and it broke. The guy at the mechanics' shop said that it was a good thing it was a home game (high school football) otherwise they would have already had the shop closed! Lucky for us! They put us in their break room where grasshoppers were on the couch, and their laundry was draping one of the chairs. It was about a 2 hour delay for us and $87 poorer, but it turned out to be okay since we still made it to our pre-planned stopping point, Wichita, KS.
Stranded in Stratford, TX
Grampa with the kids at the hotel in Wichita
We left the most perfect location for us, in ABQ, NM to the Missouri countryside. It is awesome here! The boys love the yard, they love their room, their school is amazing, I could go on but will stop there. However, the look on Emily's face was priceless when we pulled up to the house for the first time. She was in disbelief, wondering how she will survive for 2 years in this house. Luckily, she has had a huge change of heart and absolutely loves it now, the mice, flies and all!
Moving in day, babies were just hanging out in whatever we could find at the back of the truck
The boys exploring
The triplet table made it!
Getting settled
Dining/Entry
Family Room
The Boys' Retreat!
Finally, here are some random photos from the last little while. Enjoy!
Going Away Murder Mystery Party. Prince Charming and Snow White
Cooper and his creation
Luke and his black eye
Ethan
Anderson likes Red Vines
Bennett does too
Taya especially loves Red Vines
While we were packing boxes, the boys found a good use for the cubbies in our bedroom
Well, the babies are just a couple of days from being 8 months old. Here is what is happening with them and their progression...
ANDERSON:
Yes, those are fairy wings (but they look like donkey ears)
He is becoming a joy, such a fun little guy. He is still the middle-weight, about a pound or so behind Bennett. Anderson is doing a frog-like crawl, it is all arms and no legs, but at least he is moving. He will sit up when we put him on his bum (he still needs to work on that a little bit), and that will last about 30 seconds then he gets a little top heavy and hasn't learned that if he puts his hands down first he won't land on his face.
BENNETT:
GQ
Still the heavy weight, and he doesn't show signs of giving up that title any time soon. He is crawling, legitimately crawling. He will sit up all by himself, and he loves to play with Legos. He also has 2 teeth! He has had them for a couple of weeks now and it really hurts when he decides to chew on your toes when you're not watching.
TAYA:
Shiver me timbers!
The feather weight of the group. She is still where she was a month ago. She will now roll back onto her back from her tummy, and she will get up on all fours for about a second, then decide that her arms can't take the weight and will drop to her belly and get in the "Superman" posture (feet and legs up as high as they will go). She is getting super sweet though, she gives Daddy a gigantic smile when I go get her from naps, it's enough to melt my heart.
Let's see, what else? Cooper started first grade, Luke started Kinder, and Ethan is in a preschool 2 days a week. Cooper got mad the other day that he didn't have any homework yet, that is a trait he definitely did not get from me, even when I had homework to do, I would pretend that I didn't have any.
We had a visit from some of our best friends in the whole world, the Shapiro's, visiting us from the Phoenix area. It was awesome to see them again, and get caught up! Thanks for stopping by guys!
I was also able to take a very quick trip to Kirksville, MO (our new hometown), to check out the house that we signed a lease on based on pictures. I was very pleased! The boys are going to LOVE it! The house sits on a couple of acres, there is a barn out back for them to play in, there is a pond (owned by the neighbors), corn fields surround us. The best thing about it is that it is only a mile outside of town, so it is not far to drive anywhere.
Home Sweet Home (in 3 weeks)
Our yard...lots of tent space if you want to come and visit!
One of the coolest things about Kirksville has to be the airport. It is great! I got to ride on a little Cessna airplane to St. Louis. I know that some of you have been in small airplanes, but this was my first (at least since the time I was like 10) and I was so excited by it (I'm a nerd), I got so excited that I even took a picture (well, actually lots of pictures, but only this one will make it to the blog):
Now for the random pictures:
Food! Taya is loving it!
Ethan is digging for precious commodities while "reading"
This is how Luke fell asleep in the toy room, superman cape for a blanket
Anderson and Taya
Always have something in their mouths!
MOSDOH!
A final video for you all as to the different types of crawling that are going on in the Hutchings household
