District Champs!

Here are some pictures of district championships against Pendleton.  Apparently Pendleton has gone to state 12 of the last 13 years, here we are beating them!! The boys did great.  Beat them in 4 innings with the score being 10-0.  On to state in Bend!

4th of July

We had a great 4th with Connie and Verl.  We went to the parade in Imbler, tradition, went back to their place for BBQ and swimming in the pool.  They kept Emree and Beckett while the rest of us went over to Pendleton for the championship game for Districts.  Brady won!! (more on that later.)  Went back to La Grande just in time to get loaded up for the fireworks.  It was such a fun day, what more American thing to do than watch baseball on the 4th of July right?

Pendleton Water Park

After one of Brady's district games in Pendleton we decided to go to the water park over there.  The kids had a ton of fun, Carson and I watched.  Chas got to go with us, so the kids loved swimming with him.  Brooklyn and Brady are quite the divers and loved jumping off the high dive.  Brady tried to do a front fliip, but didn't flip far enough, needless to say he had quite the red belly for awhile after that.  Poor kid!

 I love this one of Carson, he is so dang cute!

Morgan Lake

 One day last week I decided to take the kids up to Morgan Lake, it was a spur of the moment thing (like usual), but some of their friends were able to come.  The kids had a blast swimming in the lake and jumping off the dock! It was a great day!

 Beautiful Emree!

 All the girls!

 Cristian, Brady, Beckett.  So much fun.

 Even Carson enjoyed it, he got to throw rocks in, not quite as good as swimming, but still nice to be outside.

 Love this picture of Carson!

 He loves to draw all over his cast. At first I tried to keep him from doing it, but whatever, at least its not all over the walls!

Pictures!

Just some fun random summer pictures!

 Beckett can make the funniest faces.!! He is out of place with that blond hair.  Chas told him the other day, "Just wait till our Hutchins reunion, you will be like, Hey my brothers!! Because of all the blondies on that side!"  He was really excited about that !

 Brooklyn really likes my new phone and taking pictures on it!

 Emree shimmied all the way up to the top of this post, that girl has some muscles!

 Swinging at the park, waiting for Brady to be done practice.

 CArson is not always the most co-operative kid.

Like I said Brooklyn likes my phone.

Too much work and not enough progress

Okay so today I am frustrated! I feel like I am working my tail off around here and nothing looks any different, sometimes I think about how nice it would be to have a nice new (vehicle, house, furniture) you name it, so that it would look clean and nice at least for a couple of years.  Starting with old and trying to make it look nice is a lot harder!  I need more hours in the day. And another thing that I HATE, nothing works.  Nothing ever works when I go out and try to start it, for example, yesterday I planned on going out to spray the orchard, guess what the sprayer won't work, I call Chas, he tells me how to get it going, so 1/2 hour later I can finally go out and get it done.  Today I go to start the rototiller, (we have a love/hate relationship), it won't start so after like 1/2 hour and 10 gallons of sweat, I call Chas to see if he has any tricks.  He tells me, it finally starts, so I start tilling and it dies again, I go to start it again and the pull rope breaks. Seriously!!! kidding me.  I told the kids that the rototiller makes me crazy!  I go to drop Brady off to head to Walla Walla for a baseball game, feeling envious of the coaches new suburban and beautifully manicured lawn and mansion I solemnly drive back (in my 1999 suburban) to my anything but new home.  And I just have to laugh to myself, if we had decided to stay in town and have less kids I guess we could have the "new" stuff too.But it's definitely not worth getting rid of a kid or two.  So I will be happy with what I have and enjoy the endless hours of work that I have to do and will have to do until I die!  But it's going to be nice around here one day, DANGIT!!!  (it may just be longer than I would like.)
Come what may and love it!

Joseph Smith

While driving through Pendleton yesterday Emree says jokingly, "Look there is Joseph Smith."  Beckett replies, "Holy Cow I did not recgnize him!"

Broken Leg

I woke up early this morning and headed out to the garden to get some weeding done.  I heard some of the kids wake up around  8 and head out to the trampoline.  Awhile later I heard Carson crying, but it didn't sound like a hurt cry so I wasn't too worried, about 10 minutes later he started crying again and this time I could tell he was hurt.  I walked over to the tramp and Brady was holding him and jumping, every time he landed Carson would cry out in pain.  I yelled at Brady to stop jumping at ran over to see what happened.  According to Brady the 3 boys were jumping and he had gone inside for a minute to get something, he came back out and Carson was crying.  Beckett doesn't have a story that stays the same, so who knows what actually happened.  Anyway poor little guy.  I called around for advice and then decided to wait a couple of hours to see if he would start using it again, (he wouldn't walk on it.)  Around 12 I was feeling around his leg and noticed that it was pretty warm and definitely swollen, so I decided I should take him in.  We went to the Urgent Care place here in town, I really like Dr. Leone, and he said, " Yep pretty sure it is broken," and sent us up to hospital to get x-rays.  We got in pretty quick actually and they confirmed the break, made an appt. on Monday for a cast and sent us home.  No splint, or cast or anything.  It was a long day and night.  I called the orthopedic clinic where they were going to cast it and told them I thought it needed a splint or something, anyway to make a long story short, they agreed it needed to be casted that day and we went in at 1.  Now he has a pretty blue cast that he has drawn all over with sharpie.  He has been a trooper, totally not loving no mobility though, and neither am I, but hopefully the 3 weeks will go by fast!  Anyway there's our first broken bone story of the family! Awesome!  I will get some pictures soon!

Outside time

The kids made mud pies today while I weeded the garden.  They helped me with a couple of rows and then I told them they could go off and play.  I loved listening to them play together.  Brady was the store manager and he made mud pies, the two little ones would pick "money" (grass) to pay for how big a mud pie they wanted, so hilarious! Carson decided to get in on the action and sat down right in their mud making pit.  I love listening to them play.

Fun Family Weekend!

So this weekend we had a blast! Brady had his first baseball tournament which was in Boise.  It was at a park that also had a splash pad and a super fun park for the little kids to play on.  Can it get any better?  The little kids loved playing in the water, Chas,  Brooklyn and I loved watching Brady play and he loved playing.  We really don't do things like that very often, the whole weekend just hanging out together and relaxing.  It was so enjoyable, the most fun we have had in a long time.  I have decided that Chas and I need to chill out on the "work" thing.  It was just so fun, not to have anything to do, but enjoy each other.
This was Brady's first time playing with these boys, they have all been playing together since April, travelling all over,  so he was mostly on the bench, but did earn a spot to be the E.H. (extra hitter.)  He has come so far from last year, as he only hit the ball one time!  He had some great hits, an RBI, and a triple! We are so proud of him and how much he has progressed.  The team he is on is pretty fun to watch, some good baseball games!! IT was an exciting weekend, we ended up getting second, not too bad for a small town playing down in Boise! So fun!! I could get used to this!! Way to go Brady!

All Stars

Brady found out he made the allstar team today, he is way excited.  He has been anxious and waiting all weekend to hear! Congrats buddy! It 's going to be a fun couple of weeks!!

Some more baseball...

Here are some videos of Brady pitching he had an awesome game last night, they will be in the finals tomorrow!

Baseball Playoffs

This year has been a great year of baseball for Brady.  He is the only one that decided to play and that has been really nice! They won their first round of playoffs last night.  Brady got 5 R.B.I.'s and did really well pitching for 2 innings with only 2 walks.  It is so fun to watch him play and excel.  So our next game is Monday.  Good Luck! So proud of you!
On another note I sprayed the orchard yesterday. All by myself! I was pretty proud of myself, I have previously left that job up to Chas, one of the many that I am having to now learn how to do and just do it.  With him having a hurt back I realize there is a lot of things that I depend of him for.  I need to be better at just figuring out how to do them myself.  It also makes me realize how much he does for us, we are really hoping he gets better soon!
I made an appt. with the ESD to get Carson assessed about his speech, he is really having a hard time, he doesn't talk much at all and it is getting very frustrating, he has started crying a lot and we are going crazy around here!  I really don't think there is anything wrong, but I would really like some pointers on things I can do to help him move along!

I'm a Believer

While driving home from Portland Emree and Beckett were singing I am a Believer from Shrek, here is Beckett's version:
 I thought love was only true in Veggie tales, made for someone else but not for me.  Mom was out to get me, thats the way it seemed, dis a portland haunted all my dreams.
He comes up with the craziest things.
We told him the lines were this: Love was out to get me, he looked at us incredulously and said, " That makes no sense, love was out to get me.  Love doesn't get you. " and still today sings, Mom was out to get me.  Makes me smile every time.

Love

Beckett measures a lot of things by how far the Phillipines is away.  Today he said, "Mom I love you all the way to the Phillipines and back, that is a long way!" He cracks me up.

Mothers Day 2014

I had the perfect Mothers Day! The kids slept in until about 8:00, which never happens.  Chas and I got up around 7:00 we got to get our scripture reading done and finish up my sharing time lesson and Mothers Day craft.  Brady brought me breakfast in bed, outmeal, cranberries and a water bottle.  That boy is so thoughtful.  He is such a tease and a stinker, but so thoughtful.  He is always the one getting up early to make breakfast, or get someone's favorite candy for them or other such things.  After breakfast and dishes we decided to go for a walk, which turned into a 2 hour walk up the trails, which was so lovely.  We enjoyed talking, running, walking, laughing and picking wild flowers.  Chas didn't have meetings until 12, which was also wonderful.  One of the things I like most about Mothers Day is the opportunity I have to reflect on how grateful I am to be a mother, and how much each one of my kids means to me.  There is nothing quite like it in the whole world.  I love being home with them, watching them grow and become is one of the most satisfying things in all the world.  Keep on keeping on kiddos! I love you, keep the faith and stay strong!

Conference Weekend

Today we went out to Brother Flowers cabin for lunch and the second session of conference.  It was nice to have a change of scenery although the kids were a little harder to entertain out there.  It's always nice to go out and visit with Sis. Flower.  Conference was awesome and it warms my heart to hear the leaders of the church encourage us to keep going.  This morning we went and got donuts for breakfast which the kids loved of course! Happy conference weekend everyone!!

Pruning

Chas came home from work early today which was so nice.  He tries to come early on Friday on conference weekends so we can get somethings done around here without having a Saturday to work on it.  In between rain storms we went out and pruned the orchard, there is something about working outside with him and the kids, that I just love.  We really don't say much, but being together in the sunshine, working, makes me happy.

Blessings of Tithing and an answer to prayer

We have had a real answer to prayer this week.  A couple of weeks ago while talking to Kayla I mentioned that we were in desperate need of a new car, the cost to fix the problems with ours exceeded it's worth and we were in a bind about what to do.  She said that Thomas' mom was selling her suburban, I asked her all the details and told her we were very interested.  Anyway long story short we ended up getting her suburban for less than we would have had to pay to fix our car.  Ezra was flying into SLC that next sunday and could get it to his house where Kayla drove it to hers and I rode with Mom & Dad to pick it up from her house.  It couldn't have worked out better, we feel so blessed and recognize that the Lord is looking out for us.


Here is our new beauty!! We will miss our old car though, we went a lot of places and have a lot of memories of that car, we had it for 10 years!  But are so excited for our new one! Thanks Tari!!

A long Week

This is going to be a hard post to write, but I don't want to forget this experience.  On February 3 we found out we were pregnant with baby #6, we had decided that if the Lord wanted us to have another one we wanted it to be close in age to Carson, since he is kind of a loner at the end. We were really excited, but I knew it would be a long 12 weeks before getting into see the dr. as we had lost another baby in July. Fast forward. Friday March 21 I started spotting a little. I tried to be optimistic as it wasn't much.  We left to go to Boise for the youth temple trip, we stayed the night with Keeton and Melissa.  Saturday morning we went to watch Dallin play soccer, went to DI and did a couple of other things.  We got to go to the temple with Brooklyn, (it was her first time)  it was so wonderful to be in the temple with her and feel the spirit there so strong.  After the temple we all went out for lunch and it was all I could do to keep it together as I was spotting some more, it was awful.  After lunch we went back to Keeton's, got the kids and drove home.  Saturday night I told Chas I was pretty sure we were going to lose the baby and I broke down.  I really just couldn't contain it anymore, I couldn't believe that I was 11 wks. along and just now something was happening, I thought I was pretty much past the danger point.  It was a long night with a lot of tears.  Sunday I woke up and there was nothing, nothing happened all day and so I had begun to be hopeful that everything was still ok.  Monday afternoon we went in for our Dr. appt. and there was nothing there, an empty amniotic sac, no baby, no nothing.  What in the HECK!  Our Dr. explained that it was something called a blighted ovum, what am I? the person who has all the weird things happen, that nobody has ever heard of.  Molar pregnancy, blighted ovum.  Who knows what these are?  Anyway I can't say that I was super shocked, but still disappointed.  She told us that with that type of thing your body does not get rid of it naturally, so we scheduled a D&C for the next day.  Another one! The third one I have had to have!  Anyway we went in for surgery the next day,  I felt kind of numb honestly.  I tried to not burst out in tears every few minutes, but I did a few times and that's ok.  Surgery went fine.  I remember waking up and I was crying, even before I was really awake,  I remember thinking, "your not even awake, how can you be crying already?" I cried a lot the next couple of hours before we went home and even a lot when we got home.  I am so thankful for good friends who sent flowers, watched my kids, brought dinner and came to see how I was feeling.  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such great people who are true disciples of Jesus Christ and help to "bear one another's burdens."  It was actually good timing because my Mom & Dad got here Wednesday and that was so nice to have them here. I wasn't supposed to do anything for 24 hours and light "work" for a week, they were such great help physically and emotionally it was nice to have my Mom here.  It really has been a rough go, I am thankful for my testimony that I can rely on my Heavenly Father when things are tough.  I still am a little emotional when I think about it. I was so sure it would be fine this time and we could be happy with our 6 kids and move on. Now we have come to a different point.  We will see what the Dr. has to say about having more kids as they think this one was a molar pregnancy as well.  My health and the health of the baby now have become a major consideration as we go on from here.  I trust the Lord is watching out for us and He will let us know in His time what we are to do.

Abraham

Yesterday I felt a little like Abraham. It's like the Lord is telling me. "Ok, thanks, just wondering if you would do what I asked."  But I am not sure I like the results.  In fact they have left me very emotional, more so than I thought. It is comforting to know that He has a plan and in the long run it is better than mine.

Light

One of my favorites:

"There may be some among you who feel darkness encroaching upon you. You may feel burdened by worry, fear, or doubt. To you and to all of us, I repeat a wonderful and certain truth: God’s light is real. It is available to all! It gives life to all things.¹ It has the power to soften the sting of the deepest wound. It can be a healing balm for the loneliness and sickness of our souls. In the furrows of despair, it can plant the seeds of a brighter hope. It can enlighten the deepest valleys of sorrow. It can illuminate the path before us and lead us through the darkest night into the promise of a new dawn.

This is “the Spirit of Jesus Christ,” which gives “light to every man that cometh into the world.”²

Nevertheless, spiritual light rarely comes to those who merely sit in darkness waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to the Light of Christ. Spiritual light cannot be discerned by carnal eyes. Jesus Christ Himself taught, “I am the light which shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.”³ For “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”⁴

 understand and accept that darkness exists—but not to dwell there."

Love Elder Uchtdorf and his words of wisdom 

Another one about Beckett

A couple of week ago in primary a little boy mentioned that he had set the table for his Mom before she got up in the morning.  Guess what my little guy did for me this morning? He is usually the first one awake on non-school days and he comes and lays in bed with Chas and I.  He did this morning and I fell back asleep. I was awakened by banging dishes, my first response was to go down and tell him to be quiet because he was going to wake up Carson, but I listened to him set the table and was so thrilled that he was being so thoughtful.  He came upstairs and I said, "What have you been up to?"  He said, "I don't want to tell you, come and look." So we went downstairs the table was beautifully half set.  He was proud of himself and I told him how happy he made me feel.  He said, "Well I wanted to ever since Beckham said he did it for his mom." That meant he had been waiting for the right moment to do it.  What a special boy he is!!!

Life is hard...

Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing.  Sometimes it's hard to do the right thing when you know people are going to mock you and question you.  Sometimes it's hard to submit to the Lord's will when you really want to do it your own way.  Not only when you are a kid, sometimes it's still hard when you are an adult.

Beckett's hip

I was remembering something today as the little boys and I were at the park waiting for the kids to get out of school.. About a month ago Beckett started complaining about his hip hurting and that he couldn't walk.  Off and on for a couple of weeks, finally he woke up one morning and couldn't even walk.  He was in so much pain, poor little guy.  We could barely even lift him into the car, there was no way he could stand and would scream if I even tried to move him.I tried to see if he was faking it, but he clearly was not, so I packed the boys in the car, called Chas and decided to take him into the Dr.  After I picked up Chas, we decided we would try the chiropractor first, since we knew the Dr. wouldn't say anything, except for go and get an x-ray, which we really didn't want to pay for.  Our family chiropractor is great, and child under 12 is free, which is totally awesome! Anyway he got him in within the hour and checked him out.  His response was, " Has he had any falls lately?" I said no more than a usual 4 year old running, jumping,crazy boy."  He said, "No, I am talking like out of a tree, kind of fall. I have never seen a kid this little with such a swollen hip and pelvis.  I will put everything back in and will see you back on Monday, (it was friday.) Beckett went from not being able to put any weight on that leg, or even have us move him at all, to walking out of his office.  Miracle!! We could not believe it.  The Chiro. was a little concerned though that there might be bigger issues since he had so much pain right on the ball of his femur, where it connects into the hip.  We went back in on Monday, Beckett was his normal self all weekend, barely even slowed him down, just sore at the end of the day.  He had 3 appt.'s that week and a couple the next and he has been fine ever since.  It was such a miracle to watch him walk out of the first appt.  We are so glad that nothing else has come up and he seems to be doing just fine.  Small and large miracles happen in our lives everyday, if we are willing to look for them and acknowledge the Lord's hand in our lives.

Survey time

A couple of months ago I asked the kids a bunch of questions, here are their responses: ( I can't find E & B's right now.)So here are Brooklyn and Brady's:

1. What is your favorite color?
         B: Turquoise
         B: Blue
2.  What do you want to be when you grow up?
        B: Mom
        B: Rancher, Cop
3.  What is your favorite song?
       B: Love is Spoken Here
       B: Rise and Shout the Cougars are out
4. What makes you sad?
       B: People fighting
       B: Falling off my bike
5. What makes you happy?
       B: Making a left hand lay- in
       B: Four Wheeler
6. What is your favorite movie?
       B: The Croods
       B: The Avengers (which he was not supposed to watch in the first place!0
7. What is your favorite thing to wear?
       B: Comfy clothes, T-shirt
       B: Under Armor, Sweat pants
8. What is your favorite animal"
       B: Horse
       B: Dog
9. What is your favorite season?
       B: Winter
       B: Winter
10. What is your favorite holiday?
       B: Christmas
       B: Christmas
11. What is your favorite sport?
       B: Basketball
       B: Baseball
12. What is your favorite thing to do as a family?
       B: Play games, Go Swimming
       B: Play Settlers, Play Kinect
13. What has been your favorite vacation so far?
       B: Yellowstone
       B: Canada
14.  What is your favorite scripture story?
       B: Ammon
       B: 2000 Stripling Warriors
15. What is your favorite story about Jesus?
       B: When He walks on water
       B: When He tells the fishermen to, "Come Follow Me"
16. What would you do with $100?
       B: Save it.
       B: Buy something useful
17. Who are your best friends?
       B: Family
       B: Jarom & Cristian
18.  What is your favorite food?
       B: Lasagna
       B: Pizza

throwing rocks!

Lately I have been really thinking about letting my kids be kids. It may sound dumb, but I try to think of having a picture moment with at least a couple of them each day. (not that I do take pictures, but things they will remember doing with me.)  Today the sun was shining, miracle! So I decided to take Carson on a walk down the road, which we do a lot, but today I thought I would go at his pace and just wait while he did whatever he wanted to.  It is so amazing to sit back and just watch your kids, I mean really watch them, it is amazing to see what they do, how much they learn and explore.  WE walked down to the ditch where the creek is running, sat on the side of the road and threw rocks.  We all know little boys can do this for hours!  It was so fun to see him giggle when he would actually get one in the water and try to say uh-oh when it rolled into the grass instead. It was great fun , even though I am sure he won't remember this specific thing, he will hopefully know how much I love him because I choose to spend time with him.  Isn't the world just a beautiful place and I am all the more blessed because I get to share it with my kids.

JoJo

Disclaimer: I am not posting these to brag about my kids to the world, (since only a few read it anyway), but I am recording these stories for my own sake because I KNOW I will forget them. Sunday morning after I got out of the shower, Emree came into my room, all dressed for church which is at 1:00, hair done, and ready to go.  She said," Mom  I am going to fast today."  I asked her if she was sure, she could fast half the day with Brady and eat right before we left for church.  She said she was sure and that she wanted to do it.  Later in the morning I got the kids together and told them to bring their journals and scriptures.  We were fasting for ways that we specifically could help Hasten the Work in our area so I wanted the kids to write down what they thought they could do.  She wrote, "get all the people to come to church." 

Love this girl.  Then in sacrament meeting she told me she wanted to bear her testimony. I said okay, she walked all the way up there by herself, sat with Chas for a minute, got up and did it, by herself!  I am  a proud Momma! Out of all of my kids she is by far the most reserved and shy, but she has been so brave at bearing her testimony, this is already the second time she has done it! After she bore it she came down and gave me a big hug.  I told her how proud I was and she said, "Mom I got up and got ready, decided to fast even though I don't have to and bore my testimony."  I said, "You better watch out Heavenly Father is going to take you straight up to heaven!"  She is our little angel in disguise! Love this girl!

Brady

Our goal at the beginning of the year was to give out 5 Book of Mormons this year.  We have given away 4 already! I am so proud of my Brady boy! Before school the other day he said, "Mom I need 2 B.O.M's to take to school today." I asked why and he said, "Because I don't know if Ronoldo will want a spanish one or an english one so I will just take both." Seriously. That's what he said, I am so proud of him and his desire to share the gospel. The little boy loves it and was on page 13 by the next day.  What a missionary he is going to be!

Going ons....

Carson loves working out with me, he is getting pretty good at kick boxing, so I apologize ahead of time for anyone he punches, he really does it to make friends and not to be mean.  That is how we play together, we "box." 

Brady started basketball today, I guess I am coaching.  It should be fun, a lot different than coaching girls though.  He also gets his glasses tomorrow, he looks so distinguished in them.  Now his looks show off how really very smart he is!!  He is working on his science fair project which is, " Does the amount of light affect how many eggs chickens lay?"  That is in full swing, science fairs are not my favorite!

Brooklyn is gone to Canada with my sisters.  she is having a fun time with them. She has a couple more weeks of ball and then will be done, it has been fun, but we are all wearing down and will be excited when she is done.  She decided not to play softball this year, so we will enjoy having Brady be the only one playing ball this spring.

Emree and Beckett are in swimming lessons right now, which they love.  Beckett has a hard time listening to the teacher and is constantly going under water when she turns her head.  Emree of course is the perfect student, she is the one you can always count on!

All the kids got straight A's this semester, good job!  I keep plenty busy following a tornado around all day, but  I really am glad I get to be home with them. Anyway that's thing in a nutshell for now!

Little boys...

Beckett cannot get that states are called states, he calls them islands, so yesterday he asks me, "mom do bad guys live on our island?"  Another  thought, "Mom I know which island has rattle snakes.  Colorattler."  He is one smart cookie!
Chas went to Ellensburg today so I had to take Brady to batting practice tonight, with the 3 little ones.  The littlest one is just a tad bit crazy to have somewhere, anywhere really that is a confined space.  He loved doing everything he shouldn't do, running down the stairs, far away from me, trying to get under the batting cages, trying to climb up the barrier between the mezzanine and the gym (which is a very long fall!)  Holy this kid wears me out! and frankly I sometimes wonder if I will have my sanity in tact by the time he leaves the house, or more realistically by next week!

Christmas

Dec 19: Went to Emree's program at 1:00.  It was so cute, she loves to sing and she had a great time. We didn't get too many pictures, but she sure sang her little heart out.

Dec. 20: Last day of school.  I went in for the kids parties, which is always fun, but not so much with the little tornado around, it's a challenge to keep him from getting into everything in the classrooms.  We went and picked Brooklyn up from school as well and are so looking forward to Christmas break.

Dec. 21: It has been snowing and snowing it is so awesome.  We spent ALL day today playing outside from 8-5.  Bro. Flower called and asked if we wanted to come down and go snowmobiling, which was so fun.  we hung out there for a couple of hours and then came back home and did some more sledding out in the field.  It was a great day!

Dec.22: Christmas program at church, had to play the organ and piano for choir it was kind of a crazy day

Dec 23: Took the boys into town with me to get a few last minute things.  Chas got to come home early and we had a fun night sleeping under the tree and watching Mr. Krugers Christmas.

Dec. 24:  We had the Flowers over for dinner and the Christmas program.  I always have this ideal vision in my head of how the Christmas program should go and it's always spriritual and enlightening, but it never turns out that way.  CArson didn't want to be a shepherd and kept taking his hat off, Beckett wanted to hold Baby Jesus the whole time, B & B were fighting over which one got to wear the robe for their costume, oh well.  We just keep doing it and someday they will catch on right! Too Funny!  Beckett was so excited for Santa to come he could not go to sleep, he kept running into our room, asking if Santa had come yet.  Finally he fell asleep about 11.

Dec. 25: Kids woke up at 5:30.  Santa had left them a note in the front room," Hutchins kids big and small, your present wouldn't fit up here at all, down the stairs you'll have to go, Merry Christmas & HoHoHo!"  They were so excited to see the Air Hockey Table he left for them.  Carson had a fever all day and so he spent most of the day on my lap, which I was totally content just to sit and snuggle him and watch everyone else.  This is might have been the first day in my life I have stayed in my pj.'s all day long, crazy!  We chose not to have anyone over on Christmas day, and let me tell you it was so nice!! Just relax all day, a whole day, who would've thought?  It was awesome!  We had such a wonderful Christmas and are truly blessed.

Dec. 26:  Chas went back to work, I took all the kids to the stake center to play ball, but everyone was tired and sick and complaining and coughing so that didn't last very long.  We came home and watched movies and such. 

Dec. 27:  We left for Boise around 11:00, which is a world record for us, I couldn't even believe we left that early.  We got to Ezzie's made pizza and then went to the Meridian Village, a new winter fun spot.  The older 3 got to try out skating for the first time,. poor little JoJo was pretty sick and had a miserable time, falling on the ice and being freezing cold.  The other 2 had a great time and were kind of getting the hang of it at the end.  It was miserably cold though and we didn't stay for too long.  There was Christmas music, skating rink, lots of Christmas lights, water fountain show and lots of heaters and fire pits, which is where I spent most of my time!  Saturday we went and played basketball with everybody, which was pretty fun 

brooklyn's suprise party!!!

 DECEMBER 10 2013

So I put together a surprise birthday part for Brooklyn's birthday! It turned out awesome, she was so surprised!  She was at Bro. Flowers doing the birdhouse so she had no idea.  All of her basketball team came along with some other friends, it was quite the surprise.  Here are some pictures of the party! 

Scones and hot chocolate!

 Presents!

Charity

I did something today that I don't usually do.  It really made me stop and think, after I did it of course.  I took the little boys with me to Walmart today and while driving out of the parking lot I saw an older woman pushing a walker going into the store.  The sight of her broke my heart.  No gloves, so hat, just a coat.  And it is COLD here right now.  I had just put on my headband to warm my ears when I saw her.  I wondered why someone was not with her, driving her to town and why she wasn't dressed warmer, and the thought came to me that maybe she doesn't have someone to take care of her, which honestly made me teary.  So I stopped in the middle of the road, hopped out of the car and gave her the headband which was on my head.  I asked her if she needed some gloves as well, (mine were in the back) but she said she couldn't fit gloves over the wrist braces she had on both hands and showed me them.  I asked her if she needed anything else, she said, "No, I think I will be ok, thank you! Merry Christmas." I told her Merry Christmas back and felt bad there was nothing else I could do for her.  I wished I had bought some groceries in the store and could have given her some, I wish I had some cash stashed in the car for such an occasion, but I didn't. It really made me think, I need to have a gift kit in the car at all times.  So my goal is to get one and stock it with boxes of granola bars, gloves, toques and other things that people at this time of year might need.  Once the kids are out of school we are going to go to the dollar store and spend $20 and get 10 hats and 10 pairs of gloves and drive around town and see how many we can give away to people that look like they could use them.  I think that will be so fun and I am truly excited to see how it goes.  I hope that my children will remember this occasion and that we can do something like this every year.  After we left Beckett asked, "Mom when is that lady going to bring back your head thing?"  I told him that she could keep it forever because she needed it more than me. "Oh, ok." was his reponse,  I hope my children all remember that to give is really to receive.  I can't tell you how much this little thing has made me think about all of the blessings I have and enjoy each day.  I need to do better at looking past myself and truly looking at the world and trying to make it a better place.  Everyone needs the love of the Savior in their lives.  So to anyone who reads this, I challenge you to find someone, somewhere and let them feel the Savior's love through you!

Sledding

I just took Beckett and Carson out to enjoy the first snow, oh how I love it!!  I pulled Beckett in the sled and Carson rode with me on the 4- wheeler, I have such fond memories of doing that as a kid.  I love it when I see them enjoy it as much as I did.  Oh the magic of snow, I just love it!

Bread

Emree: "Mom, I like your homemade bread, just not the taste of it."
 Oh my gosh I about died laughing, as I was telling Chas about it later that night she said, "Mom that's not what I said, I said I didn't like it toasted." Whew that makes me feel better.!

Saturday Nov. 23
Went to the church to play basketball around 9 stayed till 11:30, it is getting so fun to take the kids to the gym.  I have very fond memories of my Dad taking us when we were little and it was so much fun!  Brooklyn and Brady are getting better everytime and are working hard.  Brooklyn loves it, Brady just loves to play anything and the little kids love running around crazy.  We had some races at the end which was really fun, Emree is going to be quite the athlete we think, she has good form and has a deep desire to win and will work hard to get it.  After we came home I found her in the living room doing pushups, she can do 20, which is 19 more than Brooke and 10 more than Brady, hahah!!!  Even Carson got in on the action and loving racing with everyone else.
Came home had lunch and Chas worked down in the basement some more.  I am so thankful for him!! He knows how to do everything.  Last weekend we tore all the ceiling off, can I say disgusting!!! I think mice must have lived up there at some point, thank goodness we did not see any though, just had to clean up their mess!  Chas took all the old light out and put in 8 can lights, which is so, so nice!! He asked me if I wanted him to wire it for a projector and sounds system! Sounds fun, but I would rather spend the money on something else!  The kids and I spent most of the day outside, Brooklyn got to ride her horse, was a little chilly, but nice enough.  Brady and I cleaned out the chicken coops and cleaned up around the yard.  Hauled some wood over and such.
When it started to get dark we came in and decided to go and do some Christmas shopping which was fun.  I love watching the kids pick out their gifts for each other. Came home had waffles for dinner and got ready for Sunday.
Sunday 24:
Went early to church to practice with the choir for our musical number today.  Chas and I talked in church about missionary work, we need to be better!  Home teachers came at 2 and Chas didn't get home until 3, so they visited with the kids and I and left before he got home.  Had dinner and went out to Sister Fieldings.  She is now living alone as Darla went back to Pendleton.  She is oh so lonely in that huge house, but she has finally sold it.  So glad for her.  She will be moving in Spring, which we will be sad about her leaving, but happy she will be closer to her family so they can help her out.  Pretty good at 80 something, she takes no meds, and lives out on the farm by herself.  She is such a great woman.
and now it is Monday and back to the routine, 8 loaves of bread made and raising and just finished a batch of rolls for Thanksgiving, so thankful for all that I have! Happy Monday!

Random

Not sure how I can keep up with everything, but this is what we have been up to.
Brooklyn has b-ball practice 4X week, I go with her on Mondays and help coach, which by the way I LOVE!!  I have found there are not many things that I do for myself and decided that that would be a blast and would be worthwhile.  I love it! I get to run around and play ball with my daughter, what could be better.
 Last night I asked Brady about the girls that have a crush on him, he told them " Too bad I can't date until I am 16"  Awesome buddy, just keep saying that!! MAybe we should change the age to say like 20?  Brooklyn invited a friend to mutual the other night and she had a blast and asked if she could come every week, ummm ya!!! Brooklyn is not technically old enough, but goes with Chas after practice, plus she'll be 12 in 2 weeks, crazy as it is!!!  Her friend got on the bus yesterday morning and said, "Remember I am coming to mutual with you tonight, I am so excited!"  Missionary work doesn't get any easier than that! and it is so exciting, I keep hoping she will be the key into her family!!
Emree is loving school and came home with a huge smile on her face yesterday.  "Today was sit by a friend day at lunch and Kenai and Daniel were both looking for me, I said 'are you looking for me?' and they said yes! where have you been?"  She was so excited to have someone want to sit by her and made her feel so special.
I am teaching the kids piano, which is no easy task mind you, and they are all doing pretty good, I am making Brady stick to it this time and he is actually doing quite well