Convicted

Convicted: to impress with a sense of guilt

Recently I have been very convicted about my daily life....my spiritual growth, time management, attitude towards the kids, ect. Just so many things I feel like I need to grown and improve on. I guess that's just life, but it seems like it's been on my mind more and more lately....things I want to change, stuff I want to focus my attention on. Well, I was catching up reading all of my blogs this afternoon, and I got to one of my favorites. What she had to say just really got my attention. Made me even more convicted when it comes to my kids and my relationship with them. Why is slowing down so hard?? Why do I find it so hard to put what I WANT to do aside and just be with them. I get so spoiled sometimes because we have been blessed with kids that play fairly well by themselves and with each other. But that makes it so much more easy for me to tell them "just a minute" over and over again. This isn't the kind of mom I want to be. I definitely don't "soak up my moments of being a mom" as she puts it in her post. I want to soak up those everyday "mundane" moments with the kids. I want to make new memories with them and do fun things with them. I want to make the time for them and I want them to be a priority in my life. This is such a struggle for me! Not because I don't love them, but because I am a selfish person. I feel like they just demand so much from me sometimes and I just want to do what I WANT to do, not what they want. There are so many things that NEED to be done (feeding them, changing their diapers, ect.) that when it comes to just enjoying the fun they have, I often am missing it because I've told them "just one more minute." Children have such a simple, fun outlook on life. I want that. I want to live in the moment with my kids. I want to share in their memories because I was there watching them and being a part of it.

Because they truly are a blessing from God. There are a lot of days I really have to remind myself of this when they are testing me, but they are a blessing. Life would be empty and dull without them, and I'm thankful for them. I want to enjoy this gift we've been given while they are still around to enjoy! I want to enjoy these moments now, while we are in them, and not look back and try to remember. I know I am not going to transform overnight, because let's be honest, raising kids is hard, and there is always going to be something else I'd rather do or "need" to do than build them a new train track. AND I'm sort of a neat freak so my house to-do list might be longer than most because I have a hard time walking away from disorganization and messes. But that's what my kids are asking for...simple stuff.....just for me to be there and to play with them. So today, I'm going to start trying to improve....knowing that I will still fail somedays....but just keep trying to live life slowly (like a child) and enjoy the mundane moments we've been given.

Just my baby

This is probably the most pictures Parker will ever have of just him:) Sorry sweetie.....life of the third child, you always gotta share! My wonderful friend Allison agreed to take some newborn pictures of Parker. I just wanted a few pictures to document him at this stage in life (plus we had newborn pics done for the other two and I do try to be fair and equal....AND, it was a great excuse to spend some time with Allison:)). She did an awesome job this summer taking pictures of our stubborn kids and some belly shots for me, and she didn't disappoint this time either. Newborns are hard. It's not like you can make them pose for you, or smile, or even really cooperate. You just gotta hope they are happy and take lots and lots of shot to get the good ones. Sadly, Parker wasn't happy. Well, he was until we undressed him. Then he was just pretty much ticked until I fed him. That's the life of a baby I guess. Allison still got some great pictures. Here are a few. I couldn't pick favorites because I love them all. Thanks Allison!!

Isn't he handsome?!?
We have lots of this in our house....crying. One of the three, or often times all of them, is almost always crying. It's tough being a kid and not getting your way!


I can't handle the cuteness of baby feet. So sweet!

It only took me three weeks

I finally got a picture of all three of the kids. Eli was so excited. He had been asking to hold baby Parker since we brought him home, but he was running a fever the weekend we came home, so he wasn't allowed. There's really no excuse for the other 2 1/2 weeks:) But, I finally got around to it so enjoy the pictures (PS.....please excuse the quality of some of these pictures. I can't tell that they are blurry until I upload them and I was trying to get the best one of the kids.....as you can tell, I didn't really manage that! But, I got the shot, blurry or not:))

Eli was so happy he was finally holding his baby brother. Kamdyn and Parker are blurry because they can't sit still.

Oh the pokes....I don't know what it is about kids and poking, but mine sure do like to poke their baby brother. Poor Parker.
Kamdyn wanted to hold Parker herself, so we gave it a shot. She really did pretty good. Her problem is that she can't sit still long enough to just hold him.
Eli on the other hand did awesome. He is such a great big brother (maybe slightly annoying in Parker's opinion, but he's just showing his love the only way he knows how). He was so mad when I took Parker back and he couldn't hold him anymore. Such handsome little Huttons:)
And she's sure cute too, but she was much more interested in poking baby brother's head than looking at mommy or holding Parker:) This one's a little fireball....lookout daddy!
And since I was on the ball, we got a shot of our sweet family of 5. This will probably be the only picture of all of us for at least the next 6 months:)

Who says you can't do a gingerbread house in September....

Apparently the gingerbread gods do.......this project was a disaster from the start (yes, that's the train engine leaning, it's not the angle of my picture)!Last year after Christmas I saw a gingerbread train on sale. Eli had so much fun doing his first gingerbread house that I decided I should get this and save it for another time. Plus, he's obsessed with trains, so I figured it would be a great project to do with the kids (Kamdyn was old enough this time to help:)). Well, the kids had a ton of fun, but mom sure didn't. I have to say from the start, that I will never again buy a gingerbread anything that is not already pre-assembled. I think that was the biggest problem with the train. It was up to me to get the train put together and ready to decorate. I figured it would be easy and fast.......wrong! First I broke a few of the pieces so that they were jagged and not all the same size when I was breaking them apart like the directions said. That made it very hard to actually connect them together with frosting because the ends didn't even all reach each other:) Oops! Then, the frosting was super hard to work with and didn't spread out easy at all. It was sort of like glue, so you would think that it would make the pieces stick together....wrong again! I could not get the pieces to stay together. They just kept falling over or coming unstuck no matter how much frosting I used to try to make it stick. I eventually gave up, let the train win, and told the kids they could come decorate. Like I said, they had fun, which is really all that matters. I had to stand guard though.....if they pushed too hard on the engine when they put candy on, it started tipping. So I had to "straighten" it about every 45 seconds.


Finished product. Please don't judge:) I don't expect anyone to go riding on our train (if mom's in charge of putting it together that is!) Looks pretty cute from here. I just didn't get an up close shot so you could see the disaster.
BUT......like I said, this project was a disaster from the start. Five minutes after we finished, this is what happened to our beautiful train. Dominos. I fixed it once, hoping it would stay. It didn't....two minutes later, it was reduced to rubble once again. So, it met our friend trashcan last night.
And this is what the littlest Hutton did while we slaved away. Well, I guess I should say this is what he did after two screaming fits, one sibling love fest (those two can't keep their hands off of him if he's within reaching distance), two attempted location moves to bring about happiness:), and one diaper blowout (his first ever.....was just thinking the day before that I was impressed because he hadn't had any diaper blowouts....Eli and Kamdyn had them all the time. So, since I thought it, the diaper blowout happened). Isn't he cute!

Bath time

.........As you can tell, he wasn't really a fan. But then again, most babies aren't a fan of their first baths. Parker's first bath was actually a few days after we came home, but I'm just not that on top of things around here. He seems to like them much better now. The last two baths he's gotten haven't involved screaming which has been a nice change......we will see if it stays that way. Maybe until we give him a bath with his brother and sister.....that could be an adventure:)

Do you see a family resemblance?

Parker as a newborn:Eli as a newborn:

When we found out we were having another boy, I wondered how much he would look like Eli. Eli just has such strong Hutton genes and is such a spitting image of his daddy. After he was born, I used to tease that it was a good thing I was the pregnant one so everyone knew for sure I was the mommy.....there was no doubt who the daddy was:) I kind of thought that if we had another boy, he might look an awful lot like his daddy too. I was right. In fact, sometimes it's almost like deja vu. Different place, different time, but same little baby face. Well, mostly the same:) These two boys look A LOT alike as newborns. It will be interesting to see how they grow and change. But the Hutton genes sure do dominate in our boys. So, just for fun, I rounded up an old picture of Eli from about the same age (he was probably a couple of weeks older here, but not a big difference in age I'm sure). See if you can see the same family resemblance as me!

Eli as a newborn:
Parker as a newborn:

Such handsome boys! They obviously take after their daddy:)