A Family Day

Yesterday my family came to SLC and we went through the Draper Temple Open House. The temple was really pretty, but quite small. I was surprised. My Dad, Mom, Marcia, Tracy, Brennen and Ever came down to go through the temple. Brennen was a crack up. He kept saying we were going to G's house (he calls Jesus "G"). He was cracking us up. When we walked around the baptismal font he said "Big Tub Pa!" Then, when we went into the Celestial Room he looked up at the giant chandelier and said "BIG LIGHT!" He was so funny.

We had to take buses up the temple since there was no parking and on the way up they cram you into the buses so we had to stand up during the drive. Well, my dad was holding Brennen and he was holding onto one of those loops that hang from the ceiling. There was a cute old lady in front of us who turned to Brennen and said "wow, your hand is so strong (from holding on)." He looked at her and flexed his other arm (that wasn't hold on) and said "This arm strong too!". We all just laughed.

After we went through the temple we drove to La Frontera... a great Mexican Resturant here in SLC and ordered some dinner. While we were waiting for our food we were chowing down on some chips and salsa. Brennen kept dipping his chip in the hot sauce and we would all watch to see how long it would take him to grab a drink. Oh man! You should have been there. That kid's faces were hillarious! Tracy even convinced Brennen to take a bit of a lemon from one of our drinks and I've never laughed so hard in my life. Brennen about fell off his chair becuase the lemon was so sour. He face was so histerical! Tracy was making fun of him and saying it's not sour and then she would take a bit of the lemon. Brennen just looked at her like she was crazy and said "No, Tray that lemon is sour!".

Well, it was great fun to hang out with half the fam for the night and get a free dinner out of the deal. I always love hanging out with my family and it's even better when they come to me!

Our Family Pictures Sneak Peak!!

Go look at the sneak peak of our family pictures on Jenny's website.... They turned out super cute!! I can't wait to see them all. Thanks Jenny!

http://storybookphotos.blogspot.com/

All Aboard (click to enlarge)

Brennen was loving the "BIG Thomas Trains" and didn't want to take pictures cuz he wanted to climb on the trains. We had to bribe him with candy and with promises of getting to play on the "Thomas Train" if he would just smile one time for the camera. I think we got some really cool pictures so I can't wait to see how they turned out.

Here's a picture of Tracy, Les and Natalie being gansta' by the trains...or should I say Dr. Tray, Powda' and Nat a Tat Tat (their ganster names)

So I've haven't posted in quite a while but I've got good reason. I'm in the process of packing up my house! With me applying to Pharmacy School and Les not working much since its the winter we have decided to move in with my sister-in-law (the one I babysit for) to save some money. We are finishing up their basement and that will become our sweet little love nest.

On Sunday Julie informed me that someone wanted to lease our house. We have had our house up for sale/lease for about 4 months and we haven't gotten any calls. A couple of people here and there but nothing serious but then all of a sudden in one week she got three calls from people wanting to move in the next day. So I'm super stoked that we finally found someone to lease our house but not super stoked that I only have a week and a half to pack up and get out! The guy who is leasing it wanted to be in this weekend...ya right! But he was kind enough to give me a whole week and a half notice before he "must" to be there.

So I've been packing away each spare minute I get. I go watch Bronson from 8:30 to 4:30 and then I got to school from 5:30 to 9:00 so there isn't a lot of time for me to be able to do much. Luckily, Monday was a holiday and so I got a jump start on it all. I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately but once I get settled in I'm sure I'll be back to my usual blogger self....Marcia, I know I need to change your background....I'll get on that....soon!

Christmas & New Years

I'm way behind! I've been so busy enjoying my time off school that I've completely neglected my blog. So here's a post to update you on what I've been doing for the holidays... be for warned... this could be a long one.

New Years:
This year New Years was pretty low key. Les and I made a deal that we will take turns picking what we get to do on the holidays that aren't the major ones (i.e. Halloween & New Years) This year was my turn to pick. So we headed to good ol' Grandma Lola's for some games and some good food. We had what we like to call "A New York New Years". Basically we all hung out at my grandma's house until 10:00 (New York's Midnight) and then we split.

My grandma made up her very own version of Family Feud. She surveyed all her brothers and sisters to make up the answers. It was a pretty intense game. We are very competitive and none of us like to lose...so needless to say there was a lot of yelling and accusations of cheating. We also played an intense game of Blurt. If you haven't heard of that game before...its where you all sit in a circle and one person reads a defination of a word and the first person to "blurt" out the correct word gets to move it's person ahead. Well, this game got very hostile and my poor grandma got very scared and standoffish when it was her turn to read the definition because she could never tell who said it first because everyone was yelling...Good times.

I'm embarrased to admit that I didn't even run outside to yell "Happy New Years" because me, Les, Marcia and Kurt were at Marcia's house watching Hancock when the clock struck 12...oh well, maybe next year.

Candy At Grandma's

OK...take a look at Bennett's face. Isn't that hillarious?! He all of a sudden just started making that face when he's mad at you...I love it. I had to post it.

A few weeks before Christmas me and all my sisters headed to my grandma's to help her finish up her Christmas Candy. It's always tons of fun making candy and getting to lick our fingers after we are done. Marcia found some old aprons of my grandma's so we all put one on to get into the baking spirit. Let me just give you a background on this candy...We have made it every year since I can remember and it is the most delicious candy known to man. It beats out any candy store by far! We call it "Better than See's Candy". Each year my grandma give us a box full of candy as part of our christmas give. It is a coveted christmas item....I kid you not. The sunday she passes it out there are salivating mouths hoovering around the candy table anxiously waiting their turns to cramp as much candy into the box as possible. My grandma only allows us to take what can fit in the box with the lid close...She checks our boxes to make sure they will shut before we leave. Well, some people (my dad) try to be clever and use a rubberband to make the lid close so they can get away with more candy...shame!

The Saturday before Christmas Les and I headed over to his aunt's house to celebrate christmas with Les's Mom's side of the family. It's lots of fun. There are tons of kids running around all over the place. Santa even comes to give everyone a gift...It's alway fun to hang out with his family and see all the new babies. I swear they each have a new one everytime I see them...

Les and I were big slackers this year. We didn't get treats out to our neighbors until the 23rd. I felt bad everytime someone came to the door with a treat and I had nothing to give them in return. I was so behind I inlisted my husband to help decorate while I baked. All the cookies I made were organic and delicious. I was super stoked because I found an awesome frosting recipe that turned out great. I was the talk of the neighborhood and got a ton of completments on how good my cookies were...and they didn't even know they were organic. Man...I rock!

My mom's tree is always the highlight of Christmas. She's freaking amazing. Here are some pictures of it Christmas Morning.

Christmas at my mom's was way fun this year because Brennen is finally getting to an age were he understands Santa. He was so excited to open every gift. After he opened it he would hold it high in the air for everyone to see. It was hillarious. I was pretty sad that this year the Hutchison Kid's Traition was broken. Usually all the kids sleep together in a room and wake up early to open our stockings but because of kids and grumpy husbands the married kids couldn't do it this year. So Natalie, Tyson and Tracy built a fort in the basement to sleep it. The fort was freaking awesome. Brennen was loving it. He would hide in the fort and tell us to come find him. One thing that didn't change was my mom's FABULOUS christmas breakfast. Yum Yum.

So all in all I had a great holiday season and I loved spending time with my families. It's my favorite time of the year....I hope you all had a great holiday and if you made it through this post, bless your heart!

Gift Tags

Mom,
Here are the tags you wanted me to make. It was much easier loading them onto my blog than trying to do it through an email. Tell me which one you like. You can click on them to take a closer look. I wasn't sure what style you wanted so if none of these work I can make another one.

G-ma Lola

So last month my grandma (my dad's mom) turned 80! I've been waiting for Marcia to blog about it OR give me a copy of the pictures so I could, but I still I have to get them from her...so until I do I wanted to post a little something so you all will know how freaking awesome my grandma really is...pretty much, she's most of the reason why we Hutchisons are so cool...

My grandmas was born November 15, 1928. She was born in Alpine, UT. This is a picture with her and her mom

Her mom, Blanche lived on the same block her entire life...she grew up in one house and then she was little moved two houses down and then when she got married she moved around the corner. Craziness huh?!

My grandma married her high school sweetheart Melborne Whitby and they had three kids. When my aunt Jilene (the oldest) was 6 years old her dad got cancer and died, leaving my grandma with three small children. Luckily, shortly later a handsome man named Thomas R. Hutchison stole her heart and they got married. They had three kids together as well (including my dad who was the oldest of TR's kids) Then my grandpa Hutchison died from blood poisoning becasue the medication he was on (prilosec) depleted his immune system! He was delivering milk and it was windy and he fell and cut his knee on a storm drain. A few days later he said he wasn't feeling well and he died on Thanksgiving day, he went to lay down and he died in his sleep. So SAD!! He became a case study for the medicine and when my Aunt Lorie (his youngest) was in nursing school her instruction talked about my grandpa because she was one of the nurses who tried to save him.

I don't know how she survived all the heartache and pain from losing two husband not to far apart. Or how she found the will to continue living and raise 6 kids! To make matter worse, her son Derrell was murdered when he was a teenager. My grandma has been through more than any one person should. She's the strongest person I know and I am positive that's where a lot of the Hutchison stubbornness and strong wills come from...not to mention the lack of self control when it comes to sweets! She's absolutely the best example of Enduring to the End. There is no doubt whatsoever that this women has a room waiting for her in heaven. She's literally a saint and I'm so proud to say she's my grandma!

Happy Belated Birthday Grandma! For those of you in my family...I'm not exactly sure if I got the stories exactly right but I just wanted to give the jest of it.

Once I finally get the pictures of her awesome birthday we threw for her I'll be sure to post them...along with the halloween videos I've been promising...I know I'm a slacker.