Rewind and Fast Forward

What a year it has been and it is only September. This year has been a year of "stuff".

It started in January with Gracie. She was having a ton of random behavior issues that after months of seeing doctors and specialist we found were a result of 3 things: intolerance to gluten and nuts and a struggle with sensory processing disorder.  Today she is doing worlds better though we still plan to return to her occupational therapist for some extra help in dealing with her sensory issues.

In the midst of that Allen had to return to the Physical therapist for some help getting his back working correctly again.  It took a little bit, but is now doing great.

Ellie had casts put on in the spring, in order to correct some toe walking that was causing some ligament damage in her legs.  Of course we struggled to keep them dry in the wet northwest weather so she had way more than 2 casts total :-)  She also decided to be the first Hutchison kiddo to get stitches after she fell on a rock in the backyard.

Lizzie and Sera have both been doing well with thankfully no major health issues to deal with this year, which is a huge blessing since they are the two kiddos that started off life with the lengthy NICU stays.

The exciting and somewhat scary news is that we are unexpectedly expecting number 5 this March.  The scary part is that there are some major health concerns that come with this exciting news.  To explain I need to go back in time.

In 2011 our little Sera was born.  Shortly after her birth the nurse noticed that she was running a very low temp and no matter what we did we couldn't get it up.  They decided to test her blood to see if maybe she had a virus or something that was causing this low temp.  When the results came back they (and we) were shocked to find that she had very low platelets (about 9,000 for those that like that info.).  She was rushed into the NICU where they gave her a platelet transfusion and eventually diagnosed her with Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia (NAIT for short).  Basically when Sera was in utero my bodies platelets saw her platelets as foreign and attacked them leaving her with almost no platelets and a high risk of brain hemorrhage.

Fast forward to now.  This means that our littlest baby has a 50% chance of having the same problem with the same severity or worse.  The risk we are most concerned with is a brain bleed that will then result in brain damage and/or death before our baby is old enough to be delivered.  They can't test to see if this little one has NAIT, because of the unnecessary risk involved with doing a test on an unborn baby that may have little to no platelets.  Instead the protocol is to treat the mother as if the baby has it with the only treatment that they have seen any positive results from, IVIG. 

IVIG is immunoglobulin given through an IV.  It is given to a number of different people for a variety of reasons (asthma, alzheimer disease, some forms of cancer, pedatric HIV...).  Depending on why someone is being given the IVIG determines how often it is given.  In our case that means once a week for the duration of the pregnancy.  The idea being the immunoglobulin will confuse my body enough to hopefully keep it from having time to bother with attacking the baby's platelets.

 I had my first treatment almost 2 weeks ago and it was everything I read about and more.  5 hours in a room hooked up to an IV, only to leave with flu-like symptoms that I will spare you the details of since it isn't pretty.  The symptoms continued for another 36-48 hours after the treatment, leaving me and the rest of the family feeling discouraged.  Thankfully this past Mondays treatment was much improved.  They ran it through slower to lessen some of my side effects and gave me hope that we will be able to make it through the next 23 weeks of treatments.

Last week I decided to add more to the growing list of health stuff, when I was diagnosed with borderline Hashimoto's. This means we are officially Gluten free around here and I get to take extra supplements.  But honestly, compared to all the other things we are and have endured this year, I am feeling so grateful to have an answer to some of the things I was struggling with for the past 2 years.


So where does that leave us?

Humbled...

Refined...

Grateful...

We serve an amazing God who creates so much change in us through these times of struggle.  I find that in these valleys I am able to praise God all the more fervently than on the mountain top, because in the valley there is no where to look but up to Him, but on the mountain there is that temptation to look at the view down below me and become so caught up with it that I forget who brought me to that place. 

Long Breaks

So the snow stopped, the rain began and continued for sometime, and now here we are in the beautiful sunshine of summer.  This is quickly becoming my once or twice a year blog.  We have been working hard on our backyard (the front yard is next years projects).  It is slowly coming together and feeling more and more like ours.  We are growing things like crazy (beans, lettuces, spinach, sunflowers, carrots, pumpkin, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cilantro, basil, thyme, sage, corn, strawberries...and enjoying raspberries, blueberries and soon to be apples).  Of course all these yummy things are helping to grow our Lizzie, Ellie, Gracie and Sera.  Most of the raspberries, blueberries and strawberries never make it into the house with all the anxious harvesters watching as they turn to their beautiful blue and red colors.

Snow At the End of March!

So I have been posting to get caught up on the past several months, and looked at my last post (which I auto posted a week or two ago) and saw it was an inside snow day. Ironically this (current) post is a snow day too, but outside...in MARCH!!! Crazy.

Lizzie and Sera standing by our 3 snow people

Gracie, Our fence-flower when it comes to being out in the cold

Lizzie with her snow lady, and Sera not amused at her being stuck in the cold wet snow for a photo op

Ellie loved throwing snow at people

Sera, well....did not care to be cold

Snow Day Inside

So we have had really weird weather this winter. Sunny, cold and some snow followed by rain. During our most recent bit of snow the girls were sick and not allowed to enjoy the white outdoors. We instead enjoyed using the air mattress for a variety of events, from sailing through the seas, to climbing and sliding up and down. I did get some video of the girls, but am still figuring out the best way to post it.

Christmas 2011

Some Christmas photos of delight.

Ellie's new apron

And Hooded towel

Lizzie-Santa

Shock and surprise as they read about the new bikes they are getting from Pa and Ma

Sera reading her new book

Gracie looking through her things

Lizzie's a pro at this game

Sera looking sweet in her new headband

Boxed Gift

Here is our little one year old, all boxed up

Harvest Festival 2011

The girls got to get dressed up twice this year since our church threw a Harvest Festival. Our three Sleeping Beauty Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) were thrilled at all the games. Lizzie especially enjoyed the cookie walk, and ended up convincing us to take part more times than I can count (mostly because we all had won a cookie but her and she desperately wanted to win). We probably could have opened up our own bakery with the combined total of cookies we had all won.

Trick or Treating at the Zoo

Last year we started a new tradition of going to the zoo rather than trick-or-treating

Pumpkin Carving 2011

So we carved pumpkins in 2011 :-) Here is us carving away.

Sera provided the music

Gracie the cheesy grins

Lizzie the focus to get the job done

Ellie the comedy to lighten the mood

3 of our pumpkins with their pumpkins

Bet You Thought This Blogger was Done

Well I must admit, I did consider it, but the reality is when you have a camera full of pictures, and want to share them, this is the fastest and simplest way. So much has happened since the last post, and yet so little that I can think to write about. Some of us have been cutting teeth,


others losing them like mad and still others grateful not to be doing either of those options. Over the course of the next few weeks I plan to get caught up on my pictures. Hope you enjoy the stroll back in time since I have pictures from pumpkin carving to Christmas and into this "New" year.

New Bed

Gracie recently transitioned into a "big-girl" bed. It has been fun to see her becoming such an independent kiddo. This was the bed-christening event :-)

Caramel Apples

My Mom was always big on traditions. One of her favorites was caramel apples. I think it is quickly becoming one of my favorites too. So much fun and so yummy.

1st Day of School

So behind again. We have been pretty busy with school, and colds and life, but I wanted to at least post the pictures I have been taking.

These are from our first day of school. Lizzie and Ellie are doing first grade this year (though Ellie's is a bit modified since she doesn't quite have the hand control for writing yet that Lizzie has). Gracie is "tagging along" now and then based on mood, etc.

Caught Pink Handed

I guess this is what I get for trying to cover the kitchen table with paper (pre-pumpkin carving) and leaving a 2 year old alone in a room with markers.




Before you jump to conclusions, she did not technically write on herself (as she has been disciplined for that offense more times than I can count). No, no, no, this time she simply took the marker apart and squeezed out every drop of marker ink from the marker-spongy-insides. She is clever, but still lost marker privileges :-)

Jack of the Latern

As I was looking for the best way(s) to cook pumpkin seeds (in prep for our pumpkin carving), I stumble across this little bit of info.

The History Behind the Jack O' Lantern

"The story of the Jack o'Lantern comes from Irish folklore. Jack was a crafty farmer who tricked the Devil into climbing a tall tree. When the Devil reached the highest branch, Jack carved a large cross in the trunk, making it impossible for the Devil to climb down.

In exchange for help getting out of the tree, the Devil promised never to tempt Jack with evil again. When Jack died, he was turned away from Heaven for his sins and turned away from Hell because of his trickery. Condemned to wander the earth without rest, Jack carved out one of his turnips, took an ember from the devil, and used it for a lantern to light his way. He became known as 'Jack of the Lantern.'" (taken from allrecipes.com).

Despite this disturbing tale, we chose to carve away at our pumpkins anyway.

Give Away entry

So generally as a rule I don't blog about giveaways that I enter. Mostly because I don't want to reveal to you (or myself) just how many giveaways I enter. This one however, looks like it would be amazingly useful as we start homeschooling up again this year.

It is a We Choose Virtue Giveaway worth $99

You can find the giveaway here and it is hosted by the crafty classroom

Summer Inside

We have spent way more of this summer indoors than we ever could have thought. Yesterday it was warm and the younger girls were napping so I allowed the older two to watch one of their favorite cartoons:

Word Girl

It was intense

so a snack was requested

and I was low on "snacks", so they got cold pasta

but didn't seem to mind