Dusten's Top 5 Albums of the Year

This might be the first year since I got back from my mission where I didn't buy whatever album I wanted whenever I wanted it. So I may not have covered a respectable amount of area in the music industry this year. However, I would like to give props to the albums that did get me through the year. They are in no particular order.

WILCO - Sky Blue Sky
Wilco fans give Jeff Tweedy a lot of well deserved crap for reforming his band every time they record a new album. I loved their previous album A Ghost Is Born so much that when I first heard this one, it felt empty and week and I blamed it on the new line up as well. But then I saw them live in Denver and it blew my mind. In fact, it was one of the top 3 best shows I have ever been to. After the show, I couldn't get enough of it. Walken is my favorite song.

RADIOHEAD - In Rainbows
This is probably an easy one to pick. How could Radiohead ever go wrong when they are all together? Sorry to Thom Yorke's forgettable solo album. I felt like they took a good step back toward their Kid A sound from their previous album on this one. I was most blown away when I heard track 5 All I Need on my new favorite T.V. show of the season, Life. I can't wait to get my hands on a hard copy of this album.

DR. DOG - We All Belong
I will preface this by saying that I know these guys have ripped of The Beatles/Paul McCartney's sound. But it is one of the happiest, pump-me-up albums I have heard in a while. This album is a nice change to the slower, ambient music that has been so popular from bands like Iron and Wine and their sad album Shepard's Dog. If you want to be happy and clap along to some fresh yet vintage sounding music, give this one a try.

PINBACK - Autumn of the Seraphs
I fell out of love with Pinback a while ago. I regained interest with their album Summer in Abbadon and recommitted myself to them completely with this album. It made me want to listen to all of their stuff over and over again. It shows progression and maturity which I though passed them up a while ago. A lot of people disagree with me, but I feel that this album validates all of their previous work.
ARCADE FIRE - Neon Bible
This one is as obvious as Radiohead. A solid album with enough variety to please my siblings, my co-workers and even my wife, this album is nearly flawless. Everyone can listen to this and enjoy it. The only thing I didn't like was the track order. This was another album that to me was 100 times better after I saw the band live.


Honorable Mention...
Here are some other albums that were close, but not top five:

MODEST MOUSE - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
FEIST - The Reminder
LES SAVY FAV - Lets Stay Friends
THE SHINS - Wincing The Night Away
KANYE WEST - Graduation

Those Books

Before I begin I must preface this post by saying, if you have not read these books yet and don't want to hear anything about them then you shouldn't read this. I am not going to spoil anything but there are some weirdos out there who like everything to be a mystery. Of course I don't even know how this book series could be a mystery to any woman 12-75 but you never know. Okay with that said I have finally finished the third

book, Eclipse. I finished New Moon months ago but wasn't able

to jump into Eclispe right away. You see New Moon did something to me. I couldn't put that book down. I read it in one day (for a mom that should be doing other things then reading a teen romance novel about vampires that is very fast!). I absolutley devoured that book. I cried my eyes out in that book. I talked and talked and talked about that book to anyone who would listen. For the record, Dusten was a good sport and listened. I dreamt about that book and when it was over I felt empty. Even knowing that Eclipse lay on my nightstand waiting for me I could not pick it up. I was not emotionally ready for it. So after a few months (seriously) and a bunch of prodding from those who have already read it, I picked it up. I am going to go out on a limb here and risk judgement from those who nudged me...I did not like Eclipse (Sorry Ashley). It did nothing for me. I mean after what I felt from reading New Moon I was expecting alot and but still I got nothing. For those of you who loved it, I am sorry. Maybe I just missed something. I think I need to add that the biggest reason I did not like Eclipse was that Bella is just so freakin whiny. I can't handle how she complains when people want to buy her things, and throw her parties and worst of all that her hot boyfriend wants to make an honest woman out of her and marry her! (Sorry) Oh poor you Bella, two hot dudes love you and while they may be part of the fanatsy world they still want plain boring you and would die for you. Yet you just sit around and complain that you have to go to your own graduation party. UGH! You seriously bug me. Enough with that.


For those of you who didn't know they have cast Edward for the movies, here he is. I don't even care to remember what his real name is but he played Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter movies. Boring. Does this look like a sexy hot vampire to any of you? Me neither.

After hearing who they chose for Edward I am less irritated about the choice for Bella. I think Kristen Stewart is all wrong but I don't really like Bella so they can cast who ever they want. Lindsay Lohan might do a good job.
















I need to give props to my friend Kelly and say that all though I wasn't a fan at first I am now on board. Hayden Christensen would have done a great job as Edward. I mean look at this picture. Is he not a smoldering vampire?

Christmas Time!

I hope you all are enjoying this season. It has snowed a ton here in Utah the last few weeks and everything is just so pretty. I really do love the snow. Oliver...not so much. But he does love Christmas decorations, especially lights. I am still shocked that he is barely interested in the Christmas tree. Every once in a while one ornament will catch his eye, but he is over it before I can snag it from him. We are trying to just enjoy these few weeks before Christmas, time in December just seems to vanish! Hope you all can do the same.

My Favorite Song

This may be old to some, but it is new and dear to me.

One More

For some reason I couldn't include this picture with the others but I had to share it. If you look at his eyes you can see him slipping into a sugar coma. Oh the power of sugar. Happy Birthday Olie!

Oliver is 1!!!

I have to first begin with my apologies to Oliver's Grandpa LaBonte and G.G. (his Great Grandma Caldwell). Sorry it took me so long to get this up! Oliver has made it one whole year! We can hardly believe that it has already been that long. Time goes by way too fast. His birthday was on November 21st and we had a little shin dig for him on the 24th complete with presents, cupcakes and grilled cheese (of those three things grilled cheese was his favorite, go figure!) We had an owl themed party for him, which was cute in theory but very hard to find things owl related for a first birthday party. Luckily my husband is super creative, and crafty I might add, I mean he works at a scrap booking company for goodness sakes, so he helped the party to be a smash hit.

We made over sized cupcakes that looked like owls. I have to say they turned out pretty cute, which is crazy since they were my idea! For dinner we served soup and grilled cheese sandwiches which were quite a hit with the kids and adults (the key is to use sourdough bread...delicious). Oliver had a great time although he was very uninterested in unwrapping the presents. Luckily his best bud Jacob helped me and we got those presents opened in no time.

Can you believe that Oliver wore his hat! I am shocked!

Here he is digging into his cupcake. Can you tell that he ate all the icing off first? Smart kid!

Halloween Fun!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. We had a lot of fun dressing up Oliver. I am not sure he enjoyed it so much but he is a nice boy and humored us by leaving his costume on which covered up his hands and had a hood. He is a good sport. Here are a few pictures of the evening. We went over Jacob's house, Oliver's bestest friend, so we could get a few pictures of the boys together. Oliver and Jacob are so nice to tolerate how much Sarah and I fuss over them, what can we say...We love our boys!

Here are the pumpkins we carved this year. Dusten takes this very seriously and does a great job. He did the owl and pirate ship. I did the bat and Bryan's girlfriend, Julia, did the one with flowers.

I had to include a picture of my lovely sister Emily. Do you know who she is dressed up as? I'll give you a hint...Robin Williams in "Night at the Museum" (the absolute worst movie ever made I might add). That's right...Theodore Roosevelt. Emily just might be the only 20 year old girl I know who dressed up as a deceased US prseidnet. What can I say, she loves history!

These are Oliver's cousins Daphne and Miles. My sister-in-law made these adorable costumes for her kids. Miles is serious about being Peter Pan.

Probably the most exciting thing that took place on Halloween was that I let Oliver have his very first candy. Wow, did he love it. I tried to just let him have a few licks put he quickly pulled the sucker out of my hand and wouldn't let it go. He loved every sticky second of that thing.

Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

I just found out that they recorded an entire song. Some college kid put these pictures to it. Enjoy.

Good Times!

My Grandparents came for a visit from Oregon and boy did we have a good time. They got to see the sites of Lehi which you can imagine took all of 5 minutes but we managed to keep ourselves busy. Luckily we have Oliver to keep us entertained. Actually it was nice to show off the state that I have been so reluctant to call home. There really is so much around here and it was fun to get reacquainted with things that become so hum-drum after awhile. I don't know if you Utes have taken the time to enjoy the gorgeous season change going on around you but it is truly beautiful. I don't know why I don't remember it being this pretty last year. Maybe because I was large with child and very few things held beauty for me that didn't involve babies. If you haven't taken a drive through the canyon you really need to. We went up to Sundance for dinner one night and the drive up was gorgeous. New England has nothing on us. Except for maybe maple sugar candy. Have you ever had it? Its divine.

On one of our outings we went to Thanksgiving Point and walked around. They had all of these fun fall decorations out so we decided to snap a picture of our cute fall baby. You may be thinking to yourself that this picture would have been cuter if Oliver didn't have his "plug" in. But actually he was screaming in crying in the other pictures so I thought the pacifier was a great touch

See.

Happy 9 months!

Dear Oliver,

I can't believe that you are already 9 months old! It is crazy to think of life before you came, your dad and I must have sat around so lonely and bored. You have brought such joy to our lives. I never knew that I could love someone as much as I love you. Being your mom is the best job that I have ever had! You are growing so quickly that its hard to keep up with all the stages! Here are a few of your many accomplishments in the last 9 months:
You are crawling everywhere! I can't take my eyes off you for a second. You pull yourself up on every surface, your favorite places being the tub, the coffee table, and my legs. You already have 8 teeth, that are very sharp I might add. You have have a very good appetite and have taken to baby food very well. You heart cheerios and vegetables are your absolute favorite. You say "dadadadada" and "mmmmama". And most importantly you have been sleeping through the night since you were 6 months!


I love you so much and want to thank you for being the very bestest baby a mom could ask for.

Love, Mommy

(To our readers: Thank you for letting me be a bit cheesy and sentimental!)

Really?

I am not really sure what's going on here. I love Kanye and I love Will Oldham, but I'm really not sure about this. It's not that funny...it's just weird.

Good Ol' Faithful

Hello all! Well we are home again for a few short minutes so I thought I would let you know what we have been up to. We went to Yellowstone a few weekends ago for a Hutchings family reunion. We had such a good time, the cabin we stayed in was really nice and the scenery was beautiful. Some of Dusten's uncles had brought their canoes and so we decided to take them out for a leisurely ride down a calm river. Before we left my sister in law asked me if I was going to bring Oliver and I replied, "Of course, why?" "Do they have life jackets for the babies?" she replied. I looked at her blankly and replied, "Um yeah, I guess." I hadn't even thought about needing to put Oliver in a life jacket! Now this statement may not be so weird to you but you must know that while I had no second thoughts about sending my 8 month old coasting down a river, I shudder and gag at the thought of putting him in those baby seats they have attached to some carts and have near cardiac failure at the idea of him playing in a "ball pit". Anyway after feeling like a horrible mom I inquired about life jackets and there were some in his size so away we went!

We were enjoying our lazy canoe ride when the weather took a turn for the worse very quickly and before we knew it we were having to find shelter on land because we were being pelted by hail and tossed around by wind. Luckily I had my trusty mountain-man husband by my side and he had a dry place for us to sit in no time. He even supplied us with yummy Swedish Fish as we patiently waited for the storm to pass. I have to say I was very impressed by his resourcefulness and if he was writing this he would have to say that he was impressed that I didn't completely freak out. Thanks babe.


When the weather subsided a bit we climbed back in to our canoes and made the rest of the trip in peace. Oliver even fell asleep in my arms (which is so not his style)! Man that kid is a trooper!

Telluride, Colorado

A few weekends ago Nicole and I went to Telluride, Colorado for our anniversary slash my birthday to see Bob Dylan and My Morning Jacket in concert. We stayed in Ouray (pronounced you ray) which is considered the Switzerland of the United States, though I'm not sue why...I didn't see one leprechaun there.

Telluride is a fancy artsy town very similar to Park City. There were lots of quaint little stores and a lot of delicious looking restaurants. We didn't have time to try them all.

We did some light hiking, approximately 20 yards or so. The scenery there is quite impressive. Lots of waterfalls and cliffs. In fact, the town lies in a canyon. There are wall like cliffs on either side. It was very beautiful.

The concert was fabulous. It rained the entire time. During My Morning Jacket, some dude who looked like Nicole's dad gave me a giant high-five. Another dude was next to me playing the air congos during "One Big Holiday." Dylan was great. Nicole really really liked him. He wore a bright whit hat as you can see in the picture above. His voice was so good. I kind of wish he would have done more songs without the band.
I have got to give it to Bob Dylan fans. I don't think that these dudes have ever taken a break from smoking drugs like cigarettes. There were a couple of 60+ year old men next to us lighting their bongs and dancing like hippies. And on the other end of the spectrum, we saw young families of three or four with babies as young as a few months as well.

All in all, it was a great trip.

A First Time For Everything

Since we were on a blog-break for a while, I wanted to share a list of "firsts" for Oliver:

His first solid food.

His first Teeth.

His first unassisted sit up (lasted about 4 seconds).

His first "X-treem" trick.

His first second chin.

And his first time surfing on a shark.

We are very proud of all of Oliver's accomplishments.

Kissin' Cousins

This is Oliver and his cousin Dotty. As you can see Oliver loves his cousin Dotty and she is pretty receptive of his love for her. I am watching Dot for two weeks while Mary gets settled into her new job and Cory finishes up his. That's right, Cory is going to be Mr. Mom. The arrangement seems to be working out well for them and I am happy for Mary that she found such a great job with an amazing company.
Cory, Mary and Dot are living with D&P right now and we love having them so close. I am excited that Oliver will grow up near his cousins and from the looks of it they will be good friends. While I have watching dot we have been having a few photo shoots. The babes have a couple of matching outfits so its real fun to pose them. These are cute little pj's from Old Navy. I truly heart the Old Navy. I always find great stuff there, especially for Oliver. Oliver's jammies have a hedgehog on them and Dot's have a squirrel. When Oliver was super tiny he had a brown pair that had an owl on them and I was so sad when he out grew them. So I was delighted when Mary gave him this blue one.
Watching the two babies has been a little difficult but only because I can't really go anywhere. If I had a double stroller I would try to tackle going out but I don't. Mostly we just hang out at home, take naps and watch Baby Einstein. Luckily Dotty is a really good baby and mostly just hangs out and watches Oliver. She is very easy going.
Mary went on a business trip to Chicago a week ago and while she was there she went to H&M and found these adorable outfits. The shirts say "Rockin' the Cradle" and sport a sweet cherub rocking out on a guitar. Very cute and very hip, that's our babies.