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