CELEBRATING MOTHERS

I know why I LOVE conference. It's talks like Elder Ballard's on MOTHERHOOD that leaves me SO refreshed and ready to take on the world! I am so grateful that I am a mother and one that can stay home with my children. I feel valued and important as a mother and I'm glad that I know who I am and what I stand for. I am lucky to have a husband who supports my valuable role. I am lucky that he affords me some time off when I need it.

Here's to all the MOM's out there and for all that you do for your FAMILIES!

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DAD!

(did I not mention that some REALLY amazing people are born in April?)

He's a crazy kinda guy...

...with a FANTABULOUS smile!

I love my dad! He makes me laugh. I came down today to wish him a happy birthday in person. (I know, I'm a great daughter:)) You know you're old when your birthday presents consist of:

1. upside down tomatoe plants
2. a bird house
3. a blue plaid shirt

AND...money from his daughter. You see...I owed him some money (borrowed it 3 weeks ago) and paid him back today. Did he even remember that I owed him money? NOPE! (goes along with that "old age" thing) See his face? (below) Doesn't he look SO happy? That's cuz he is! Wouldn't YOU be if someone handed you a large amount of cash? I said, "dad...don't you remember that I owed you money?" For the life of him he couldn't remember. The kicker??? He said, "I don't remember giving you money...but I DO know what you owe me for..." (he picked me up a space heater for Ben) So sorry dad, but I already paid you for that. "You did?" Gotta love 'em. He's my dad! (note to self: next time just put the money in the card and leave it at that.)

Everyone give a SHOUT OUT to my dad...after all...it IS his day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN

Ben's BIRTH YEAR

(Ben in the ICN at Dartmouth)

FIRST BIRTHDAY

(RSV)

(receiving nebulizer treatments)

(my baby)

SECOND BIRTHDAY

(the traditional "Hutchins' Bite")

THIRD BIRTHDAY

(Ben's birthday celebration with the Billin Family)

FOURTH BIRTHDAY
(Ben's surprise birthday party)
.
(Ben missed his party - over 150 people came)

(Mass General Hospital in Boston)

(Mass General's PICU)

(Transferring Ben from Boston to Dartmouth)
(See all my birthday cards?)

FIFTH BIRTHDAY

(Ben being airlifted to Dartmouth)(Ben is the KING of the PICU)

WE LOVE YOU BEN!!!

If you have a minute, we would love to hear how Ben has touched or made an impact in your life. (You can click on comments and choose annonymous if you don't have a blogging account.) Thanks for supporting us through this incredible journey!

I GIVETH AND I TAKETH

Would you LIKE to come live at our house? I'm known as the "MeaN mOM"! Apparently we are the only house on the planet where messy rooms are frowned upon. According to my children, "other parents don't make their kids pick up their rooms". I'm tired of asking, I'm tired of begging. I am now officially known as the "mEAneSt MOm" because what I giveth, I now taketh! Today I dutifully proclaimed to each one of my 3 lovely cherubs that when bedtime is announced, they will have 10 minutes to pick up their floor or said items will be TRASHED! Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth!! When the timer goes off, out comes the big black bag of death! Hopefully this will instill upon them the responsibility (I know...it's asking A LOT) of keeping their rooms somewhat decent. Yes...I AM asking a lot, I've been told...3 times over! Since we are the ONLY house on the planet where the "MeaNEst mOM" lives, I would be more than happy to send her to YOUR house!

THE BIGGEST JOKER

Ahhh...you probably thought I was talking about my dad, didn't you? Nope, I'm talking about me. Yes, I know...mostly I'm the silent type but I'm entitled to humor while here on earth aren't I? For example, I'm well known for my "playing hookey to avoid going to my birthday parties", I've pulled that one off twice now. (not sure if my family thought that was funny though) So, to celebrate this day of FOOLS, let us revist the past and I will show you what I am talking about...


Take this look for instance...do I pass for a girl? My big sister's, who keep begging my mom for a little sister, got what they were asking for - if only for a minute or two. (by the way...that long hair stuff is for the birds)
Here I am on my third birthday - you might ask yourself why this picture is funny? Well, my mom decided to take me to a professional photographer to have some really nice pictures taken. She spent about 20 minutes getting me all situated, fixing my hair, staightening my clothes (the way all good moms do) and explaining to the photographer that I do not smile on demand. (obviously I do things my own way) After she was all done fixing me up, she turned around to walk back to where the photographer was situated when the picture man exclaimed, "I thought you said he wasn't going to smile?" My mom turned back around and saw me grinning ear to ear - boy did I get her good!

This one still makes me giggle. My mom (mostly the recipient of my practical jokes, poor thing) had a friend over one day when she decided to show off all my beautiful teeth. She opened my mouth and was touching my front teeth to show her friend, when I let one loose - tooth that is. Out it popped right in front of their faces. My mom didn't know whether to laugh or cry it happened so suddenly.

My brother and I take Karate - okay, he takes and I watch. I was still learning though - he just didn't know it. One day after class I got to go into the DoJo so he could practice some moves on me. Little did he know, I had some moves of my own and before he could say "UNCLE", I had him pinned! To this day I am known as "Grand Master Ben" at the studio.

This one is probably my favorite prank to date. We were visiting my Mimi and Grampy down in Florida while they were on their mission. My Mimi loves to hold me because I am the cutest thing ever! On this particular day we were waiting for Kaleb and Stevie to get their hair cut. As I was sitting on Mimi's lap she noticed that I was smiling really BIG! She told my mom to quickly get the camera which she did. What Mimi didn't know (until the smell was overwhelming) was that I was passing gas...hee, hee. (I'm still cute though, aren't I?)

HAPPY APRIL FOOLS DAY!

FREAK OF NATURE

These pictures are of my parents. The reason for posting them besides the fact that I LOVE them dearly is to tell you a little about my mother. She's a fantastic lady! So many good memories growing up in her house and so many humiliating stories from my childhood. She loved nothing better than to embarrass me! (in a good way...) She'd be the one to get on the phone if I happened to be talking to a boy and sing "can you bake a cherry pie? Becky dear oh Becky my?" in her lovely sing-songy voice. Or how about the times she would pick me up at school and start crazy dancing in front of my friends. Oh and all those times she would chase me around the house in her scary way. Ahh the memories, the painful, torturesome memories. As much as I love my mom there is one thing I cannot figure out...(look closely at her pictures) HOW COME HER HAIR IS NOT GRAY YET? I call her a...

fReaK oF nAturE.

(and I say this lovingly)

What the heck? I don't think she would appreciate me divulging her age publicly so I'll just tell you this...she has kids that are 43 years old and younger - you do the math. This woman has NEVER DYED her hair - "too much maintenance" she tells me.

If only I were to be so lucky. (sigh...)

(I LOVE YOU MOM!)

SASSY STEVIE

Third times a charm, right? I'm still wondering. Stevie has so many endearing qualities and we just love her to pieces. However, this child lives in her own world. She smiles constantly, is SO pleasant to be around and she has her dad wrapped around her finger. BUT...she lives in her own world. Whenever I ask her to do something, she's more than willing to do it...but because (I think I might have mentioned this already) SHE LIVES IN HER OWN WORLD, she rarely gets the job done. For example: I was upstairs in my bedroom with Ben and asked her to get his suction machine out of the car and bring it up to me. "Okay, Mom!" she happily replies and off she goes. 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes - no Stevie. Finally I run downstairs and out the door looking for her and there she is shooting basketballs. "Um Stevie, did you forget to bring me the suction?" I knew the minute she didn't come back that the basketball hoop sucked her in. (she's been shooting almost non-stop since the weather has been above 30 degrees - ice on the driveway still and all) She was not being defiant or delibrate - so how do you get mad at her? I fight this battle CONSTANTLY! I will ask her to do something and unless I stand over her she immediately is drawn to whatever catches her attention. Most of the time it makes me chuckle because she honestly does not mean to defy me. I guess if this is as bad as it gets I will take it. To sum it up from the movie Horton Hears A Who (which is a really cute movie - two thumbs up):

"In MY world there are ponies that eat rainbows and poop butterflies".

That's my Stevie!

THE UGLY JUG

One of my favorite things in the whole world are the creations that my children create for me. I have adorned my kitchen windowsill with all of the different collectibles throughout the years. I love to look at them as I stand at the sink and do my dishes. Kayla came home with the mother of all loads the other day. Apparantely in the 6th grade they create what are called "ugly jugs". They are water pitchers made to look really grotesque and hideous. Kayla knows how much I love pigs and so she created an ugly pig for me. I absolutely LOVE it. If you click on the picture you can see it in greater detail. These are my greatest material possesions and I will continue to treasure them as my children get older.

GOOD TIMES

I love it when Steve comes home and engages in the kid's activities with them. Stevie and Kaleb were outside playing "PIG" when their dad drove up and they didn't have to ask twice for him to join them. Of course it gets a little competitive but Kaleb had a little bit of the upper hand with Steve in full gear. Have you ever tried playing "PIG" with snow and ice in your driveway? We lowered the hoop to give them a little bit of an advantage.
If you haven't noticed, we have like FOUR feet of snow still in our yard. Are we the only people left that have this much snow? AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!
FYI: Steve missed this "no-looker" from the side of the shed. Better luck next time honey!

Guess what? When you complain about dinners at my house you better be prepared to suffer. After a bad week of complaining about my meals from my children...I served them what I called, "CHUNKY VOMIT". That's right...if I might quote a favorite saying at my sister-n-law's house, "you get what you get and you don't throw a fit". Apparantely my kids have forgotten that we don't throw fits in this house over my dinners! I'm the chef and I'm in charge! Don't mess with me!
In case you are wondering, the meal that I made is a sausage, pasta and spinach dish. It would have looked completely normal if I hadn't blended the spinach. The only reason I did blend it is because Kaleb has an issue with the texture of wilted spinach leaves. It makes him gag. This way I can use spinach and you really don't even taste it. Makes it a lovely green, don't you think so? You can find the recipe on my "WHAT'S FOR DINNER?" blog that I contribute to along with a couple other friends.
I know...you're thinking "what great manners these children have!" Really, I don't mean to brag or anything but I've taught them well. I think my mother would be proud!

To end the night, we participated in our annual Easter egg coloring tradition. After surving their dinner, I brought out a dozen eggs for each of them to color. Of course they had to finish their dinner first before starting the dying process!
If you look closely at Kayla, I'm thinking her belly was not feeling so well. I mean c'mon! Would yours after eating "Chunky Vomit"? Ok, just kidding, she was just bored waiting for her egg to turn color.

Such precision, such artistry. They definitely do not get this from me!

Funny video of the kids playing with Steve.

I'M THANKFUL FOR...

• Beautiful flowers, especially daffodils.
• The color yellow, it makes me feel SO happy inside.
• Ben's health so that I can be home instead of in the hospital with him.
• A husband who is FUNNY! He makes me laugh everyday.
• My van, even though it's old I love that I don't have a car payment.
• Our mechanic who always makes sure our cars are running and only takes cinnamon rolls as payment.
• Springtime air. I love smelling the newness of life.
• Loving children.
• Daily phone calls to my mom and sisters.
• My health so I can continue to take care of my family.
• Our karate instructors who let us barter for our classes.
• Little pugs who bring such joy to my kiddos.
• A home to call my own.
• My membership in the church and the knowledge of the gospel.
• The true meaning of Easter.
• My blogging friends and family.
• The amazing beauty of nature.
• Food and food storage.
• A quiet Saturday morning when the kids are still sleeping.
• Aunt Suzanne and the way that she loves and spoils my kids.
• The Atonement.
• Technology that allows Ben to live at home.
• General Conference - my two favorite weekends of the year.
• Airplanes that allow me to visit family far away.
• Being debt free - it is so liberating.
• Grandparents and the great examples they are for my children.
• The soldiers that fight for our freedom.
• My testimony.