My SIL Amanda Hutchison has been posting a list of seven things on the seventh day of each month in her blog Where the Child Things Are. It sounded like a good idea, so I’m devoting my first Seven on the Seventh post to Amanda and her kids, Katherine and Thomas.
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Sunday lunch with the whole family
This has been a tradition in my family since I was a child. As a girl, we would go to lunch with my Carlton grandparents immediately following church on Sunday. Scott and I would argue over who got to sit next to Grandpa and many warm memories were created around the tables of the local restaurants in the La Porte/Deer Park/Pasadena area. Now that I’m an adult, this tradition has continued at we’ve been meeting up with Amanda & kids, Grandpa, and Mom & Dad on Sundays when everyone was in town. Lunch out is much more physical when there are 3 pre-schoolers involved. It’s been fun.
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Bluebonnet / Blue Bell Ice Cream Trip
This year Julie and I met up with Mom & Dad, Amanda & Kids in Caldwell, TX to see the land that Scott and Amanda purchased, as well as, to get some photos of the kids in the Bluebonnets. We ate lunch at this great local place and drove out to Scott & Amanda’s future home site. The bluebonnets were less spectacular than in previous years, but still pretty cool. The best part of the trip was Dad’s impromptu move to take us all to the Blue Bell creamery in Brenham. YUMMY! -
Cowboy Boots…
From glittery sparkly silver cowboy boots to the traditional leather cowboy boots in toddler sizes, I’ve seen this crew with the most amazing cowboy boots ever. My brother’s family who has lived all over the country makes my Texas family look like a bunch of city slickers. Oh wait, we are city slickers…
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The question “Why?”
Katherine’s faithfully asks “why?” to everything around her. Her brilliant, inquisitive nature is inspiring and exhausting. If her career as a princess, artist mermaid does pan out, I bed she’ll be leading research somewhere in the world.
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Juan pushing his “little buddy” Thomas on the swing at Mom’s House
Katherine, Thomas and Julie all love to run around in Grandma’s backyard. Thomas especially loves to swing. We’ve always referred to Juan as a baby charmer and Thomas has definitely taking a liking to Juan. Whenever Juan is around Thomas insists that Juan carry him and love on him. Lucky for Thomas, Juan really loves his little buddy also.
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Cousin Sleepovers with Katherine
So far we’ve had two cousin sleepovers where I invite Katherine to stay the night at our house. We do the typical sleepover activities that make the evening so much fun like eating pizza (and other junk food), watching Disney movies and staying up past bedtime. Our first cousin sleepover also included a visit in the morning to see the Easter Bunny complete with face painting. While Julie is probably too little to remember all this fun, I’m hoping that Katherine and I have created some memories to last a life time.
Note: For my friends who might be interested in starting a sleepover tradition, I’d strongly recommend that if your niece leaves her electric toothbrush at your house that you check the batteries before she come back over to claim it.
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Celebrating Birthdays and Holidays together
It’s been so nice to casually celebrate almost an entire year of birthdays and holidays together. I’ve got wonderful memories of Katherine running around at Julie’s 1st birthday last Aug when they first arrived in Texas. I remember fondly the great pumpkin event when after some significant hub-bub Aunt Robyn didn’t realize that the pumpkin patch was closed after work prompting the party to move to Chick-fil-A. This Christmas was amazing. I’m always going to remember 3 silly giggling kids fumbling over one another in the bounce house and Katherine spending the entire present opening time playing with her sticker book from Julie. Christmas was quickly followed by the visit from Scott in early January and family portraits together. Time with Scott is always special and treasured. The Memorial Day pool party and feast that Amanda hosted for the Hutchison side of the family this May was so much fun. This weekend marks the last birthday celebration together during this extended trip. Appropriately, we’ll be celebrating poolside with Katherine who turns 5 in June and Thomas who turns 2 in July.
While I’m thrilled that Scott will be back from Iraq soon and that his family will be reunited after a difficult year apart. I can’t help but selfishly feel a little sad to see Amanda and the kids head back to Hawaii after all the fun we’ve had together in Houston over the last year. I’ve heard both Amanda and Scott say that is situations like this you can either be sad for a long time and fret over the pending departure of loved ones or you can live in the moment and enjoy every last drop of time when we are together. I’m trying hard to take this advice to heart and live by the later. It’s been a great year! Amanda, I love you!
Aww, you’re so sweet.
We have had some good times this year, haven’t we? I’m really glad we decided to come to Texas for the deployment. Don’t be sad, though! Just think about how the next time you see us, you’ll get to see ALL of us!! Love you too. 