normalcy

They say "Home is Where the Heart Is" and i wanna spray paint that on our garage door because the hutchesons are all collectively exhaling a sigh of relief that we're back together under one roof. the kids are happier and in turn so are we because as my dad/dr. phil says you're only as happy as your saddest child and I'm gonna spray paint that on our roof. Our weekends used to be cluttered with catching up from the week, decompressing, cleaning, packing, squeezing in quality time with the few hours we had together and now we can take that time together a little bit more for granted and fill it with quality time doing fun normal stuff that families do together. Normal is overused because there's nothing normal about our family, but relief and exhaling are emotions we're all feeling. I just mean normal things like trips to target with one child for some bonding time and forgetting the seatbelt.

or trips to chuck-e-cheese which is around the corner from us and the cheapest date with kids I can ever imagine. I always assumed Chuck-e-Cheese was overpriced, but boy was I wrong. Lily asks to go almost everyday. I try to mix up our outings , but she'd go there 7 days a week if she could.



G would do anything on any given day. he's just happy to be around people. he's suuuuch a social butterfly!

he makes friends wherever we go and he's never known a stranger in his life. everyone is his friend and his life is just one big party. no idea who this boy is, but g wanted to be his friend (excuse the no shoes. he was 'supposed' to stay in the stroller for our quick trip that wasn't quick)

and he's as sweeet as he looks. blows kisses non stop, is always on a mission of exploring, but will stop spontaneously and give random kisses, hugs and says "ha" for "hi" 43x a day.


and our little diva who has to have more necklaces on than Mr. t before she leaves the house. i've seen such a cosmic shift in her too...it's a combination of growing and being back to the routine of having daddy come home every night for dinner. she still asks everyday if he's coming home even though she already knows the answer; it's like she's looking for that reassurance so she can exhale too.




having douglas and grace down the street has been awesome for everyone.



moving day playing a few more hours on our fun patio....




and kids at the park playing with their aunties while mom and dad huffed and puffed packing the moving truck.


the libraries here are off the ch-zain...it's like a quiet amusement park

with centers and stations setup like a classroom.

and a place for snack breaks...

and feels normal to have show and tell in our backyard...

and nothing better than visitors from naples to make our new house into a home...at our favorite watering hole we can't go to unless we're all together under the same jalepeno.

have i mentioned how crazy g is? i'm talking wild with no fear for anything and a little daredevil. You'd think this was chocolate pudding on his face or maybe some veggies, but no, it's a dirt pile he went face first into during one of his adventures. Dirt doesn't stop him.

or stop the smiling...

lily's reaction to grady's daredevil-ness cracks me up...she's always been such a safe, rule following kid who talks about the "manger" ("manager") at every store we go to making sure she doesn't do the wrong thing so she is horrified and aghast by his behavior.

such a cute picture of molly's 3 kids. (yes dan is one of them)

for some reason lily had the serious munchies at the zoo and ate more that day than she does in a week....digging for gold.

love this shot and i know grady wanted to be up there too - he loves to climb and im terrified when he perfects this more than he does now. he'll scale that wall in a minute once he figures it out.



although i hate the cold weather (im such a wimp) kids somehow look cuter in warm clothes...i see a lot of the back of grady as he's running off into the crowds with no care in the world where his mom or dad is...

while lily is always closeby amazed by his independence...

she used to wail at the sight of furry characters, but now she can't keep her hands off of them.

oh how we love me some monkey joes. google them. find one closeby and go. it's the cleanest bounce house place i've ever been to and bounce houses as big as the moon. we just bought a frequent swinging card so we'll be there weekly for sure!


Although I dont know what "normal" is, i just feel a sense of normalcy doing normal family things and knowing there's support here for our family and knowing our family and friends we so dearly love are only 2 hours away which feels like a hop skip and a jump these days! I wanna always remember how hard it was to be a fragmented family so I can appreciate the family time even when there's normal frustrations of daily life; i'll hold onto that feeling to help me on those put those pull my hair out moments and help put everything into perspective.

life is good.