The Hutcheson Headline: July 2013

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted! Oops! Well, in case you were wondering....we made it back to the U.S. safe and sound! Our days have been pretty action packed since we've been here and I haven't had a whole lot of time to put a blog post together!

When we first arrived we spent two weeks in Florida visiting Drew's friends and family there and then we drove up to Michigan and are now living in Grand Haven for the summer. We're staying in a mission house here with my parents who are home on furlough for the summer. Eight people living in a small house has made for quite the messes (mainly by my children) and lots of laughs. We're loving it!

The kids are doing well but we've had our rough days. Isaiah went through a few grumpy weeks but is doing wonderful now! This move back was really hard on him. He left all he can remember back in Uganda and he grieved all the change. He's always been a super flexible baby/toddler though so he's already gotten into the groove of our life here. Eloise is doing well during the day but it's hit or miss at night. I think moving from place to place coupled with meeting lots of new people has caused her to worry a bit that we might be the next to leave her. We spend lots of time loving on her during the day and reassuring her when she wakes up at night that it's ok to go back to sleep.... we'll be there in the morning!

It's been great to be back and see friends and family but a large part of us misses Uganda. The best place to be is in the center of God's will, though, and we know it's right for us to have moved on from there and on to our next adventure. Feeling confident in that, we are looking forward to our future in Massachusetts!

Well, I guess the best way to tell you what we've been up to since here is to show you some pictures! Please bear with me....there's A LOT! =)

Since We've Been Back...

The kids took a bath in the same tub for the first time at Gigi's house! (In Uganda they had two separate little tubs). They loved it!

We went to the beach. Isaiah LOVES the water and is not afraid to dive in!

A mouth full of salt water? It's no big deal!

Just baskin in the waves.

Little peanut loves the water too!

No babies were hurt in the making of this photo. =)

Ellie bean played in the sand.

Grandpa and Isaiah went for a walk together. So sweet.

They stopped to have a little chat.

Mimi and Eloise went for a stroll too.

Wonder what he's thinking about...

LOVE this handsome dude.

Jumpin in the waves with Mimi!

We laughed. Not sure what about but it must have been pretty funny!

Eloise got her first tea set and a Minnie Mouse! This girly girl was lovin it!

We celebrated Eloise's first birthday!

Eloise made a new friend - Maryella!!!

Eloise opened her birthday presents.

And Isaiah was more excited about most of them than she was! =)

Although she did get pretty excited about her Minnie Mouse and baby doll.

I think Eloise got about 20 outfits that day. What a shame....

LOVE this sweet sweet girl. So glad she's mine!!

Mommy's excited about the clothes but Ellie Bean just wants to make sure that Minnie Mouse isn't going anywhere!

And baby doll needed to stay close by too!

Eloise got pretty excited about her smash cake!!

And... Isaiah did too!

"Hey... I didn't eat much of my cake at my first birthday so I'm making up for lost time. "

We finally decided to just give him his own plate of cake!

She smashed it, that's for sure!

Isaiah and his cousin Gavin had a blast together! So fun to watch them interact.

We hung out with Aunt Joy and Frannie!

And lots of others who came to Eloise's party too.

Shelli and Aunt Joan.

Zai helped Grandpa take care of some dirt.

Eloise discovered an intense love for balloons!

This is the face you get when you call, "Eloise!" "huh?"

Eloise found a friend who also liked balloons!

Drew made a trip up to Cambridge and visited the school he's going to be attending in the Fall!!

Isaiah rode a quad for the first time. LOVED it!

Eloise had fun at the pool .

Aunt Adelynn is so great with babies and is always on the lookout for how she can help with Eloise.

Isaiah fell in love with water guns!

Ok, this story is too sweet not to tell. I bought Isaiah a little toy camera at the goodwill a few weeks ago. Well the day we bought it he was SO excited he came in the house yelling, "Dada Dada!!!". He brought Drew over to the couch, proceeded to put the camera on the nearby table, then went and sat by Drew and said, "Daddy, say cheese!". He's seen us set the timer on our camera so many times to take a picture that he thought he could do that with his. Drew didn't want to disappointing Isaiah so he swapped our real camera for the toy one and they got a real picture out of the whole deal. It was so cute!

Eloise met Aunt Kate! And loves her!

Isaiah finished off a glass of something that he found sitting around.

And, judging by the look on his face, we're not quite sure what was inside!

He wasn't too sure either!

We went to Mary's house and had lunch with some of the ladies and girls from the Watoto Children's Choir!

Drew got tackled by his children.

Miss Mary got to meet Eloise for the first time!

Being the sweet big brother that he is, Isaiah peddled Eloise around on the tricycle!

Adelynn loves her nieces and nephew so well!

I had dinner with my friends from Fremont! It was so great to catch up with them. We picked up right where we had left of and it felt like I had never left!