Happy Birthday, Pappaw! (blessing #4)

My dad, a.k.a. pappaw, had a birthday last week. I can't remember my dad EVER being excited about his birthday. But he's gracious and lets us celebrate it anyway and tries not to think about the increasing number of candles atop his banana pudding or chocolate cake.

Dad may not love his birthday but I do since its a great excuse to celebrate an incredible person.

I've blogged before about how great I think my dad is. Like when he sings to my kids,

the way he loves him some Oreos , and how I see his traits in myself.

I did a birthday post last year. Its all still true.

I love that my dad throws himself into everything he does, 100%.

I love that my dad loves to play with his grand kids. When we were visiting home last month, twice in four days he took a collection of grand kids out for the day, by himself. They did "Memphis stuff" and "kid stuff" for hours. The kids returned fed and exhausted while pappaw returned on cloud nine. He truly had fun! and I love him for it.

I love that even though my dad has a hectic schedule with church and work responsibilities demanding his time, he's finding/making the time to lace up his running shoes and pound the pavement. I think he's trying to show ol' Mother Nature and Father Time whose boss. Bob Boston will not "get old" until he's good and ready. I'm pretty sure that's going to be NEVER! and I love him for that too.

I love that my dad loves to text back and forth with my seven year old.

I love that my dad loves to listen to the endless chatting of my five year old.

I love that my dad loves to try and decipher my three year old.

I love to talk running with my dad. I wish I could run with my dad. Someday.

Thank you, dad, for being such a big fan of our little Hutchinson family.

We love you "too much"

(as Joe says).

(p.s. It goes without saying that my dad is definitely one of my many blessings in 2010.)

"not me" Monday (blessing #3)

I absolutely did not share my laundry drama with y'all two weeks ago and promise to show you my fun laundry room "later this week". Nor did I forget that I hadn't promised to do that.

This is our laundry room. I am grateful, grateful, grateful to have a laundry room. Without this little room we would never have moved into this place and met so many incredible people and be enjoying this fantastic neighborhood and wonderful ward.

This space is . . . snug, cozy and every other cute word for TINY!

I have exactly 7.5 inches of clearance for me and my butt to get to the washing machine.

This room is packed with two furnaces, a large hot water heater, a water softener system, our washer and dryer and miscellaneous stuff like the iron, ironing board, our card table and chairs, brooms, on and on and on. You get the idea.

The kids have begun helping with me with the laundry. They are excellent at emptying the dryer and Ella is finally tall enough to empty the washer into the dryer. Grace or Joe is usually on hand to then push the clothes into the dryer. They have a great little system worked out.

So, to get back to my "not me" Monday. I do not have a tiny little laundry room, that is not cramped and will not not let me gain a single pound for fear I won't be able to reach the washer.
I have not put my sweet offspring to work in said laundry room and I do not smile to myself in joy that they are finally big enough to help.

p.s. I have not eaten cheesecake twice in two days (with cherries AND blueberries on top).

(another p.s. my kids being old enough and happy to help is definitely blessing #3)

Happy Birthday, my sweet (Blessing #2)

Happy Birthday, my sweet!

(yesterday)

I'm sorry to say that Adam's birthday was just a regular old Tuesday. Adam went for a run, I cooked, the girls went to school, Adam went to work, I had a primary meeting, the girls had homework, blah, blah,blah.

Thankfully we did get to celebrate a bit over the weekend. Grandma and grandpa watched our kidlets on Saturday so Adam and I could go see a movie AND get some dinner. We were gone for hours and it was lovely, just lovely.

We saw Invictus (we recommend it) and got Chinese/sushi (at Asian Star) for dinner. The Chinese food was good and the sushi was fabulous.

Grandma and grandpa had us over for birthday lunch on Sunday.

The kids were so excited to decorate this cake for Adam. Inspired by Uncle Ben's cake last month the kids worked their artistic magic.

I am thankful to have such a hard-working husband, a supportive co-parent and a kind friend in Adam.

Happy Birthday, my sweet.

I love you

p.s. For reasons that, I hope, are completely obvious Adam is blessing #2 this year.

Does This Happen to You? (Blessing #1)

I used to do laundry a load at a time throughout the week. Then I noticed that Ella was wearing the same two or three favorite outfits over and over and over. So I started doing laundry once a week.

This is the kids hamper!

I don't think it normally gets this bad but honest to goodness, this is only one week's worth of laundry (and there aren't bedsheets in there either). We must have had a very dirty, messy week!

For example, if every child spills breakfast on their pajamas every day for seven days (not that hard to imagine, honestly) that's 21 pair of pajamas. Then every kid wears at least one outfit a day (and inevitably spills on, falls down in or otherwise dirties it) that's 21 outfits and that's only if they don't change clothes a single time during the day. If you have children you're laughing right now because we all know they love to change clothes a gazillion times. Then there are dress-up clothes that get spilled on at tea parties and boogered on by playmates.

And did I mention that we bathe around here every so often? So that adds towels and wash clothes that aren't included in this picture.
And this isn't even a bed changing Monday!

Do I have a point? Point? Point?

Oh yeah, my point!

I LOVE washing machines AND dryers! I love yummy smelling detergents and fabric softener. I am a million, zillion times thankful that I don't have to wash on a rock or board or even roll a machine out into the kitchen and attach it to the sink. I LOVE not having to hang dry my laundry (especially since its like 20 degrees outside).

Happy Laundry too all!

p.s. I have an odd laundry room I'll show you later this week. promise!

(another p.s. washers/dryers are my blessing #1 this year (but not my #1 blessing))