Santa Came!

Oh the joy to be a kid again.  Last year Ruldoph kissed the kids noses while they slept on Christmas Eve , but as a surprise to me, Lily woke up and freaked out that a reindeer was in her room and wanted it off her nose immediately.  I get it.  She's asleep and vulnerable and doesnt want some dirty reindeer prancing into her room.  So we rubbed it off  and then scratched it off our list of traditions.  But then this year, out of the blue,  Lily said "i can't wait to goto sleep Cmas eve because Ruldoph is going to kiss our noses."

Well, I guess the tradition is back on.

I love this picture...and these kids SO MUCH!!  All I want is for them to smile and be happy. all...the...time.


It was heartwarming as Lily tore through her gifts, she was certain to stop and hand out presents to other people and make sure everyone got a turn equally too.  "Mommy, you havent had a turn in awhile, why don't you go next?"  And of course she took turns with Grady too who was chomping at the bit at every turn.


Lily has been gazing at this doll and matching jammies in a catalog for weeks.  She put 2 sticky notes on it for extra emphasis for Santa.  She was elated when she unwrapped her.  She gazed at it all day long.



and she was in the matching jammies within seconds and hasn't taken them off much since....



they're  a match made in heaven.  She's VERY disappointed that there isn't a matching hat for her too so she'll be hitting up both Grandmas to see if they can make her one. I can hear the pleas now.



Some other favorite toys for the kids

Grady (2)

He has played this for hours upon hours since Christmas.  And then some more hours.


Jen nicknamed him the professor bc he's obsessed with anything to do with academics.  Another Grady favorite.


Lily's favorites are probably her new doll houses, her baby above and her tag pen too.  the tag pen holds more books than the tag jr pen which is the only con about the jr pen.

and they're favorite toy together is this for sure.  they sit side by side and play this forever together.
it counts the baskets, or does the ABC's for every basket and even spells words for every basket.

I can't believe this time next year, they will be 3 and 5 because it all seems to be happening so fast!  trying to enjoy every minute and remembering the reason for the season, teach the kids about random acts of kindness and the importance of giving is better than receiving.  It's a tall task, but one we work on everyday and makes us better parents and people in the end too.

Life is good.

Through the Years 2012

Here's a look back at our family growing; or trying to grow through the years. I posted something like this last year and added our card for this year.

Our first year we were married 2 months before Christmas so we used our Christmas card as an wedding announcement + a Christmas card rolled into one. I wasn't too great keeping Christmas cards, but I remember we used this picture.
2001.
2002. The next year, we thought we'd spruce it up a bit and get them done professionally. "Professionally" meaning we went to WalMart (busting out in laughter) Nothing against WalMart, but God love them with the fake Christmas tree/fireplace background. I thought these were so cool at the time though. I don't have the actual card, but remember putting the walmart picture in a frame so here it is taken in the dark from my camera at 4am. I chose that necklace carefully and made sure it showed in the picture. It was such a meaningful necklace because it said something special on it, but at this point I have no idea who gave it to me or what it says. Super special huh?
2002:2003: 2003: I can't remember what we did for a Christmas card and then Dottie remembered and sent me a picture of it. Then I lost that so it must not be meant to be that I share it. If you still have it Dottie, please send to me and I promise I'll save it in a safe place (safer than last time)

Moving on to 2004. We started at the beginning of this year and I was convinced we'd have a baby to celebrate Christmas with or at least an announcement maybe on the card. We moved into our house that year and were more than ready. Everyone kept asking us "when ya gonna have kids?" and that question tripled when we moved into our house from a condo. I couldn't find the actual card, but remember cutting it out for a Christmas tree ornament. Poor david who looks head-less. ha20042005. I almost didn't do a Christmas card this year because we had been trying for 2 years, married for 4 and I was almost embarrassed to send out another picture of just us. Felt so cheesy, but we took this picture at Skip's wedding and it was semi -decent so we slapped it into a card and sent out just a handful.
2006: Dude, enough of the not-so-Happy-Hutchesons already! 5 years of just us on the card was getting old. It felt like I was reminding all of our friends and family we still didn't have kids or any signs of them coming. It's funny because as sad as we were about the void in our lives, we really tried super duper hard to be happy in other areas of our life. Yes, it was a dark cloud over us, but we tried really, really hard not to let it suck us in to the vortex of depression and taint everything else. We didn't always succeed, but man did we try! We took this picture at a wedding which was so much fun and filled with so much love. This picture epitomizes that night. I don't remember who took this picture, but thank you if it's you!!
2007. Finally, we have someone other than us on the card! Well, kinda...Seriously, I couldn't smile big enough in this picture to show my happiness...
2008: The year we became parents. Finally! Look who made the front of the Christmas card! These pictures were taken by Kelle and they're still up on my refrigerator even though it's from 2008. I heart them that much and every time I go to exchange out some new pictures these are always skipped. I was tickling her like crazy trying to get a smile and in the process my smile is the one where you can see the back section of my teeth! Heidi bought her the shirt and it was perfect as she was our present that Christmas.

2009: These pictures were taken by my friend Katie and the forest is actually real behind us. We have this picture on a canvas on our wall and every time I look at it, it makes me smile inside. It's so odd that Grady's not in this picture becauuse I can't remember life without him.


It's crazy to think this picture was taken We didn't have any baby in the tum-tum yet and were just contemplating doing IVF#3 in the upcoming January.

2010: And then just last year we got to add the snuggle bear Grady. Yes, he's as sweet and delectable as he looks then and now.
Jen took these pictures and they capture so much of our heart and our happiness finally being a family of four.




2011: we look such a real family with 2 kids ...still blows me away. I love these little and big people so much it hurts.

We teach our hearts out to these kids everyday



Then this year Jen was supposed to take our pictures like always, but we couldnt all 5 of us (us plus jen) all in the same place at the same time in time for the card to be made so we went to a friend of a friend mom who is now my friend, Allison Laney.  She brought us to a farm ranch/polo grounds and it was a 20 minute shoot.  It would've been longer, but there was a certain party (hephermgrady) who wanted nothing to do with the pictures and D and I were both sweating to the oldies when it was over rover.  Phew!
I left feeling like we didnt get any good ones , but was so pleased with how they turned out.

It was so hard to choose my favs, but these were just a few of them.

Our job is to teach them everything as they grow, but they are really the ones who teach us everything. They put it all in perspective and show us the true meaning of Christmas.
And the true meaning of love.

Merry Christmas!

santa snuggles

Well, folks there is hope in Santa land. Kind of. There were no tears this year, but lots of help from mom and dad to make that statement true.

Lily has come a loooooooong way. She was about 8 months old when she had her first encounter with Santa. It didn't go too well.

December 2008


So the next year, Mommy and Daddy joined Lily for the picture because there was no way she'd let go of me with the death grip she had around my neck and verge of tears if I even attempted to transfer her to Santa's lap.
Notice she chose the farthest hip possible from Santa.
December 2009

Then the following year, we made some progress. There weren't any tears, but she refused to sit on his lap as she hesitantly walked up and said she felt comfortable standing next to him, but made sure even the fuzz from this santa suit didnt touch her. We even got a smile. Yahoo. I think Dottie alerted me to Grady's purple leg mid-picture and I quickly swooped in to help poor G.

Then last year our church in Naples went all out with Santa's workshop and she was all up in Santa's grill. I've never seen such a transformation. I truly never thought it would happen. She nuzzled up with him, told him she wanted a brush, mirror and leappad for Christmas and was yuking it up with him about God knows what. When Santa handed her back to us, he said "wow, she sure is a chatterbug". Ummm what? Our lily? A chatterbug with Santa?? I couldn't believe my ears. Now Grady is another story. See for yourself. I think he lost oxygen in this picture. Poor little guy. (note: he sat in water and no he didn't pee himself from fear)

Lily's face is like 'how embarrassing my little brother is acting like that. i would never do that'

December 2011


David even tried to swoop in and save the day with Grady. No such luck. (more oxygen loss)



So this year, I knew lily would be a nuzzler and Grady was hesitant.  I attempted to dump him in Santa's lap, but he had a death grip on me so I held him on my right hip with more freaking out so I switched hip to the opposite one which was a comfortable distance away and he was ok and sighed a sigh of relief, but didn't take his eyes off the bearded dude.

I think next year will be our year we can hop out of the picture and will have both of the kids on his lap.  Stay tuned for 365 more days.

heavy heart

no words of wisdom here just extreme sadness over the Connecticut tragedy. Feeling so helpless and my heart is so incredibly heavy thinking about those sweet families walking around their house with the empty bedrooms just screaming at them in pain and all the wrapped presents under their tree that'll never be opened in just 9 days. It just doesnt make any sense and I keep watching the news and reading articles hoping to find out the answer to why behind all this, but then realize no matter what is explained, it'll never fully make sense. All i can do is pray, send support, pray some more, cry along with them, never forget , thank God for our blessings, and love them more madly than i did the day before .  
I can't imagine going on in life and breathing a breath of air without them in my life and I just can't fathom 26 families have to continue their lives without their loved ones because of such a senseless tragedy. Not to mention every other person in that building that day and the traumatic after effects they will feel after surviving such a travesty and what they saw/felt that day.

It'll never make sense.  Somehow Lily and Grady and all the other children in the world will help the healing for all of us because of their innocence, their miracle lives, and impressionable spirits.  We carry on with our day to day and fake it til we make it because they deserve all of us.  This is another storm we have to be strong for the kids.


and the kids help us to quiet the noise of all the sadness and evil in the world and all we can do is hold them tighter, tell them we love them even more, and appreciate their presence in deeper ways than we thought possible.

heavy hearts for the Connecticut families and sending love, peace and prayers nonstop, feeling helpless and defeated not knowing what else to do, but pray and try to be a better mom because of it.

random fun

Oh my funny faces!!

he can go from spike to conservative comb over in seconds.  i prefer both equally.

and love seeing him with other tow head friends like Ethan.

these fishing pictures from behind NEVER get old to me.

one of the malls here has a train that runs through the mall and as soon as we pull into that parking lot of that particular mall, he chants "chain. chain. chain." 568 times until we are all aboard.  i think he gets it from his Papa.

Lily has a reserved side to her, no doubt, but she is so flashy with her funky socks she lives and sleeps in and asks for funky hair everyday.....it can go from the 2 braids and 1 bun at once, to a bun, braid and a pony at once to the side pony and I love the way she flashes her independent-dont-care-what-others-think-about-me side!

and boy do we love having Hurricanes 3 minutes from our house...especially kids eat free on Tuesday.

look at my tower mommy.

she STILL writes and colors with both hands equally....if she's writing her name, the beginning will be with her left hand and then she'll switch midway and finish off the letters with her right hand.

another mom made this adorable chalkboard picture for her first week of school and favorites.

She couldn't choose her favorite scooter and didnt want to hurt the other one's feelings so she chose both.

loving the heated pools..

our little poser...

and kissers...


life is good :)

Scooter Fun

Their favorite place to be is outside.

and together.  as soon as we pull in driveway, Grady yells side. side. side. because he wants to go on the slide in the background I got from friendly momma Rosa who gave it to our kiddos and you wouldn't believe how much they use it.

Are they edible?

life is good :)