Lucky Me

I have this brother,

Ben

And I have this other brother,

Sam

They are both really great brothers and awesome uncles. We like 'em a little bit.

A while back Ben married this super cool chic,

Meggan.

Then a while later Sam married Meggan's also cool little sister,

Cortney.

So now my little brothers are married to sisters. When I gained sisters, I gained sisters who were already sisters. Pretty cool!

These two cool sisters have another cool sister, Lindsay, who isn't married to a Boston but is married to a really great guy named Adam (but not my Adam, of course). Sorry, no pics of Adam and Lindsay.

I feel like, in getting to have Meggan and Cortney as sister, I get Lindsay too. I think that's awesome. Lindsay is funny, loving and honest.
I was just checking comments on my last post and found that all three of those sisters had chimed in and I love it.
I hope that someday we can all live so much closer so we can hang out, craft, scrap, babysit, chat and laugh.
Sure love those Kennedy girls!

The Most

I have a friend, Denae, who asked the question on her blog, "What's the most tender thing you've ever seen?" I gave the question I quick thought, couldn't decide, then went to find my chiming cell phone. When I returned to the computer our random pictures screen saver was on. This picture was on and I instantly thought of Denae's question.
This happens to be when Joseph was born. For one reason or another I don't have this picture with the girls but I'm so glad I have at least one.
This is how I see my children for the first time. I only have one free hand and about a minute before the baby is whisked away. The nurses hand the baby to Adam and he brings them to me. And for the first time, still feeling the warmth and tugging of the surgeon and the OB doing their thing, I get just a moment with my newest heart throb. Just a moment to meet and savor this brand new person I love so deeply and completely.

These are the best moments. These are the moments that make me, yes me, cry. And the tears collect in the ears, just like the country song. And then Adam and the baby are gone. I stay behind for a while longer, then post-op, warm blankets and chills, the "good stuff" in my IV, then nurses and doctors and visitors and more nurses. The moment is gone and parenting and growing up begins.

These are my most tender moments.

And yours?

My Mama is Blessing #5

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

My mom had a birthday this week. I don't know if my mom would mind me sharing her age or not so I'll be safe and opt for not.

I have a very loving mom. She worries endlessly about her family, her home and her future.

My mom is very into her genealogy, scrap booking, sewing for her home and family and her work at the temple. My dad swears that mom is going to go blind in front of the computer or hunched over her sewing machine.

Every mom/mammaw shows their love in different ways. My mom likes to use her talents to spoil her children/grandchildren.

Each grandchild gets one of these for Christmas the year they're two. My kids LOVE their "big dolls". They're customized Raggedy Ann/Andy dolls, made to match the grandchild. At our house, each doll is given the child's middle name. Ella has Christine, Grace has Anne (Annie, lately) and Joseph has Adam (though, Joe doesn't talk to or about his yet).
My mom is also famous of these hooded towels. She doesn't just sew two pieces of towel together. These, too, are customized with lace, ribbon and their names. My kids are very particular that they use their towel and only their towel and they can tell you in a heartbeat where the towels came from. Mammaw!
Yes, this is a picture of my mom sitting on the floor of the church kitchen in her wedding clothes making sure my sister's wedding cake (which mom made) is as perfect as can be. This is how mom shows her love and support. Our mom is awesome!This picture was taken in 1987. I was eight or nine and mom was, are you ready, 34. (Sorry, I just gave away your age.) Can you believe that? 34? My mom has always looked young. (And yes, that is a stuffed chef angel "flying" in our kitchen. Mom went through a killer country phase in the 80s/90s.)
And one short year later, mom entered into her famous, or was it infamous, 80's permed hair phase.
See that statue in the upper left of the picture? No matter where I see one it reminds me of mom. It has always been in our house. When I was young I thought it was my mom. I can not count the number of times I barged into my parents' room interrupting my mom prayers. Even now I know that my family and I are in her prayers every single day. I've never doubted that.

Though I'm a grown woman my mom is still a great comfort to me. I love it when we get to visit though we make due with lots of phone calls.
My kids love their daily reminders of their mammaw. Their towels and dolls, their mammaw made Christmas stockings, Ella's snow globes and Grace's flowers.

I love you mom and Happy Birthday!

Little Tiny House Guests

This is my niece, our niece, Olivia. Joseph started calling her Ee-ah months ago and now we all do. Well, Ee-ah stayed with us Wednesday day and Wednesday night while the rest of the family was out of town. My kids loved having Ee-ah around the house. Ella and Grace got to mother her to within an inch of her little sanity and Joseph got to be the watchful big brother type that would follow her around saying ,"No Ee-ah" if she got into drawers or cupboards. Ee-ah really likes emptying drawers and cupboards so Joe was pretty busy. Poor little Ee-ah!

Thankfully all parties involved survived with minimal if any psycological damage.

This little guy is another case entirely. This is Floppy the bunny. I was asked to feed Floppy while Randy and Angie were out of town. I, yes, I suggested that Randy just bring Floppy over in his cage since its been so cold. At home in their backyard Floppy has a heat lamp in his hutch and is nicely outfitted there, I just felt sorry for the little thing. After less than a day I, again, got to feeling sorry for Floopy being cooped up in his cage so I blocked off the kitchen with large Rubbermaid containers and put Floppy in there to hop around.

Did you know rabbits are jump clean over a large Rubbermail container? THEY CAN!

Floppy lasted at our house for three whole days then . . . he went back to his hutch at home with his heat lamp. I just couldn't take it anymore. I don't do pets. I realize this makes me unAmerican, a mean person and weird in every way but that's just me. A mean, weird, unAmerican animal hater.

Does this mean I'll never be elected President?

Happy Birthday Isabelle

Our niece, Isabelle, turned five this week. To celebrate Isabelle's birthday we went fishing. That's right, fishing! If you know Isabelle that doesn't surprise you one little bit. Fishing
Friday, the Hutchinson clan, took refuge from the cold in Randy's family's cabin to celebrate.

At the pond very near the cabin, the bravest of fishermen and fisherwomen bundled up to go fishing. What's a fishing birthday party without actually fishing?

Both my girls love to fish. I love that Ella is using the regular pole and Randy is using the princess fishing pole.

When the cold finally sank into their bones, our little fisherwomen came inside for even more fishing. They actually caught some fish this time. Goldfish and swedish fish!

I didn't get any pics of most of the people up there with us but I did get the weather rolling in. Though brown, black and dead, this place is beautiful, even in the winter. I love being away. Just away.

I could have a thousand of these framed on my walls. How I love these two boys.

We always have a fabulous time at the cabin with family. The kids fell asleep watching Christmas movies while the adults had a wonderful evening of playing games (without arguing, I might add) and chatting. We even talked politics, without arguing.

It was one of those moments in time you wish you could freeze and make last just a little bit longer.

Thank you Homers for having us up and

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLE

Boston Red Birds

If you are a Boston, are married to a Boston or are the child of a Boston, you have one of these hanging on your Christmas tree.
Starting a zillion years ago my mammaw (Boston) started making these for her family.
Since she died in 2003, the Bob Boston branch of the family has gotten behind on red birds. I, Emily Christine, was named after my mammaw, Martha Christine, so I thought it only fitting that I should take up making red birds.
I made six redbirds this year to bring our family current, including new addition Nathan and newest edition, Luke!
Saturday night I carefully unwrapped my 30 year old redbird made with my sweet mammaw's smooth suntanned hands. I hung it next to Joseph's new litte redbird and thought lovingly of my mammaw and her Christmas tree she stored in the stand up shower year round and the cans of cheese balls we looked forward to getting every year as children. I thought of how mammaw would carefully unwrap her christmas gifts only to wrap them back up and place them back under the tree. She hated to see the tree looking "neckid".
I am proud to be a granddaughter and name-sake of Martha Christine Boston. I am thrilled to make little felt redbirds for every new addition to our family and I promise always to stuff them with holey nylons, just like mammaw did.

Staying Close

I wonder who's been playing with my phone? Hum? Let me see, who could it be?
I keep my phone out on the countertop, easily accessible. My girls know they can call anyone in my favfive. Consequently, my mom, dad, sister, sis-in-law and brothers get called quite a bit. I'm pretty sure they don't mind. It isn't at all unusal to walk into a room in the middle of the day and find Grace on the phone. I ask, "Who are you talking to?" Grace replies, "Pappall" and continues her chatting.

Thank you dad, mom, Audra, Ben and Megg and Sam for talking to my children when they randomly call. I want them to feel close to y'all even though we are so far away. I think its working! All my love to you, my sweet family.

Happy Birthday Princess Abigail

Miss Abby turned three this week. She had a cousins princess party to celebrate. We received two hand delivered princess crowns with the party info written on the inside. Very cute! They were to wear their finest princess dress to the royal party.

When Angie does a princess party, she does it right!

Any event that involves dressing like a princess get an A+ at our house.

First, all the princesses got their nails painted. Pink, of course.

Joseph (our lone little prince) loves to get his nails painted. I wouldn't want to be left out either. Poor Joe, being the only little boy cousin in the sea of girl cousins. Somebody needs to hurry up and have a little boy and don't look at me!

Then we did princess dancing (video was too large to upload, sorry) and let the girls play, play, play.
Abby opened presents then it was cake time. The pink princess cake was beautiful and a big hit with everyone.
I think Abby's party wore her out. It has been so fun getting to know Abby better in the last few months. Abby and Olivia come over once a week and play during Isabelle and Grace's preschool. She is a hilarious little girl who loves gum, milk and lipgloss. We love you Abby!

Halloween . . . finally

We spent Halloween with family this year. Thanks to Randy and Angie for having all of us over.

Ella was a green faced witch, again. She insisted on doing her own makeup this year. More power to you, little woman!
Grace decided, very last minute, to be Snow White.
And Joseph was a stinkin' cute elephant. He love, love, loved the costume.
I imagine this same picture could be taken in millions of home across America. Oh, to be a kid again!
My kids are down to their last few pieces of candy, which I suspect will be gone tomorrow. Once the candy is gone, we can officially put Halloween to bed and moldy "Jack" in the garbage.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving and all the fun in the upcoming weeks.

A Week long Halloween Party

Don't you just love, love, love it when Halloween is on Friday? Halloween celebrations last all week long. Who doesn't love a weeks worth of Halloween? Tonight was grandma and grandpa's ward's Halloween party. We go every year we live here and its always a fun time.

Above: All seven of the grandkids were in attendence: one cheerleader (you can't see it but she's a Memphis Tigers cheerleader), one lady bug, three witches and a pumpkin. All high on sugar!
Ella was bashful about trying the "Dangling Donut" game. I was able to convince her it would be fun. And it was!
Grace also did well at the "Dangling Donut" game and shared her donut prize with Joe. However, this picture is all about the bright pink frosting all over her mouth. Aunt Steph was helping with the "Creepy Cake Crawl" so, of course, we had to play.
I found this shirt at Savers lots of months ago and loved it. No clue when I'd ever wear it but loved it just the same. Finally, a fitting excuse to wear my awesome shirt. I'm gathering the gumption to wear this shirt on a regular basis. I'm not sure I've got the style to pull it off but I can dream. I just might try wearing it to the bus stop (minus the pig tails and not tied in the front, promise)

p.s. I had a little boy in Ella's class ask me today, "Why do you talk like a country person?" I replied, "Because I'm from the country." The burbs, where I'm actually from, don't really qualify as "country" but it seemed a fitting answer for a punk red head six year old (with black painted fingernails, btw).

One more thing, these are my new favorite jeans. Not new jeans but my new favorites. I feel very this in these jeans. And that's a good thing!

A Quick Long Weekend

Ella and Grace were out of school for a long weekend last week. We kept busy and Ella said it was the best weekend of her life. So, mom running herself ragged equals kid heaven. Good to know!

Thursday started with the kids and I at the pediatrician's office for Joe's well child appointment and shots. The girls got to wear their witch gear to the doctor's office. The were a hit with the staff. Joseph was terribly pleased with the truck sticker he got on the way out.

We thought a "Wee Witch's Parade" sounded fun for the girls. It turned out lame but at least they look cute.

Friday began with a "Savannah Smiles" movie party with grandma, aunts and cousins and ended with a "Kangaroo Zoo" birthday party.

Then Saturday, Ella had a friend over to play for the day. We went to the library, swimming, lunch then looking for "collections" outside. Those girls collected every piece of garbage, I mean, treasure at the playground. Yuck!Above: Then saturday night we went to an orchard/farm in town for a hayride and an "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" outdoor viewing. Notice the little pieces of hay (straw actually) floating in the air and the Barbie that "had" to accompany us on our outing. It was great "free" fun.

Finally, check out my little man acting just like my big man. Adam has to keep up with "the market" for work so the news is a constant at our house, especially lately. "The market" better even out or I'm going to loss my mind. I am learning to despise financial news. Nope, I already do! I came into the living room this morning to find Joseph, alone, watching CNBC. Hopefully it didn't scramble his little brain.

Autumn Heaven

We got together today with ALL the cousins, yes, all four of them. We've been wanting to take the kids to Gardner Village to see all the fun witches and autumn decorations. It is such a feastive and fun place where I could spend a zillion dollars (if I'd lost my mind).

It took LOTS of trys to get all seven looking, smiling and not picking their noses or chewing their fingers. Except Olivia, we think her finger chewing is cute. Slobbery but cute!
Only some of the kids (and adults) would dare sit next to her. Adam won't do it.
Stephanie was one of the brave ones.
The Village has a huge number of BIG witches dressed and staged all over the grounds. This one riding her bike over the water is my favorite. Ella liked the hula hooping witch the best. Joe liked the two playing baseball and Grace liked the one out in the boat fishing with dynamite. They are all so stinkin' cute.
I was talking to someone when I hear Ella say, "Mom, take a pictures of me." I turned and find my gorgeous six year old posing. Where did she learn this? I haven't a clue.

We had a fantastic morning with grandma, the aunts (Angie, Emily and Steph) and all the cousins. Adam was even sweet enough to come with us on his vacation day. Thank you my sweet.

Audra, This One's for You

When waiting to be sown up last week I was flipping through a Runners' World magazine and found this. I thought of my sister. She is this ad. Enjoy!

IF YOU RAN WITHOUT SACRIFICE, CONGRATULATIONS. YOU JUST JOGGED.
Running hurts. It always has. Woolly mammoths didn't just roll over onto a plate and serve themselves up to prehistoric man with fries and a shake. They had to be caught - and running down woolly mammoths was a bitch. Guess what? Running is still a bitch. But one with a purpose. It teaches us that good things do not come easy. It teaches us that we are capable of more than we think. It teaches us that hard work will be rewarded and laziness will be punished. Don't expect to learn those life lessions from running's shiftless stepchild; jogging. Next time you suffer on the roads or trails, suffer proudly. It means you run like an animal.

http://www.wearenotjoggers.com/

Audra runs like an animal and I think that's awesome. I love you Audra and admire the woman, wife, mother, sister and friend you are.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Sam

Okay, it was yesterday. I'm a slacker!

Sam is the baby of our family. Does he look like a baby? No? I could have swore he was eight years old, like yesterday.

We all, here at the Hutchinson house, love Uncle Sam. He is a excellent brother and a very cool uncle.

I've seen Sam wet with sweat while helping us move when I couldn't help because I was too pregnant.

When Sam was in school at BYUI he would drive down and spend conference weekend with us. Sam ALWAYS bought groceries, shampoo and laundry detergent while he was there. I appreciated his way of saying thank you (he would also actually say thank you).

On Joseph's first birthday he made a royal mess of himself with the chocolate cake. Once the mess was made I didn't have a chance to clean Joe up, Sam had it taken care of. He had Joe in the sink and squeaky clean in no time. I so appreciated that. Icing is really hard to get out of a kid's hair.

And just a few weeks ago when we were in Memphis. I won't hear the kids for a while so I'd head upstair hoping not to find a disaster. I'd find them in the playroom with Sam playing Lincoln Logs, Barbies, Legos or cars. They love Uncle Sam.

Thank you for all your help with my kids and for your patience when we invade Memphis. Thank you for long talks on the phone and for introducing me to new kinds of movies that I end up loving.

I love you Sam. I hope only the best for you and can't wait to see the great things you will do.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Meggan

I have a really cool sister-in-law, Meggan. Meggan was a fine sister-in-law until they moved to St. Louis while we happen to be living in St. Louis. Megg then became a fabulous sis-in-law. I love Megg like a sister and I'm glad my brother chose so well.
For a whole wonderful year we all lived in St. Louis and saw each other once or twice a week. We ventured to many of St. Louis' fun family spots together, traded babysitting, scrapbooked and did girls nights. I miss living so close to Megg and hope we can again.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Meggan. We love you!

Tying up loose ends

So these are the last pictures that I will post from our trip home. We were there for 16 days but had a summers worth of fun.

I got to spend some real quality time with my kids, which I loved. I realized I need to do more of that at home. Cleanliness may be next to godliness but so is spending time with your kids.

I have three incredible little spirits Heavenly Father trusted me to raise and nurture. They deserve nothing but my best. And they'll get it.

We got to spend some much missed time with Ben, Megg and Kate. We miss St. Louis terribly. They are one of the many wonderful things about St. Louis.

Thanks Ben and Megg for taking my girls to Jerry's for sno-cones.
My kids love to play dress up. Mammaw and pappaw have a special dress up closet off the playroom. And what better excuse to dress up extra fancy than a special FHE dinner.
Kate and Joseph were born the same summer. They played beautifully.
Mammaw and pappaw's jacuzzi tub is a hit with the grandkids. My kids take a bizarre number of baths when we go to visit.
Joseph got into the dress up spirit too. He particularly liked this pair of mammaw's shoes. Notice he has a car in each hand and a well fed tummy. Life is good at mammaw's house.
What's a trip to Memphis without venturing down to Beale Street. My girls are very into Elvis lately (we visited Graceland but I didn't get any pics). We always stop into A. Schwab on my eternal, and thus unsuccessful, hunt for an A. Schwab t-shirt in my size. I'll keep trying. If you're ever in Memphis, stop in. Its a cool, OLD, little place.
The worst part of a trip home is having to go home (to where I actually live). It is always made more difficult not knowing when we'll be back. At the very best it will be next summer. How sad, I don't get to go home again until next summer. We'll just keep busy doing fun things and the time will fly.

My dad said the sweetest thing the other night after telling bedtime stories. He told the girls how much he missed them then said he thought the house was sad without them there. After two weeks of the house being full of kids and fun, going back to just three grown ups must be sad. Thank you, mom and dad (and Sam), for making us welcome and for loving us so very much. We miss you terribly.