The Tutich Family

Laundry Room Re-Organized

2010-01-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

Before:

This is the spot that catches and hides EVERYTHING and then gets 6 loads of laundry piled on top of it!! I knew the day they hung that one little shelf that it would not be enough. So now, almost three years later, it's finally better! Shelves, baskets, labels, places for things!! Yeah!! I pulled out the cabinet that was stuck between the washer and dryer and now hide out laundry sorter there! The boys can not reach their socks!! (It's all about the little things!)

After:

Yes, I should have painted the walls. I could have added softer lighting. Maybe a soft little rug under foot. But there's not time for all that around here! I've got two little boys, a husband, a dog and a cat. Life is on the go. Organization is key. Painting is saved for the rooms where guests visit and rest!

These pictures are of the other side of the laundry room: the pantry! This is it's post holiday look! When you have children, visitors, grandparents and a snacky husband all digging around in your pantry, things get a little, well, unorganized!

After a quick little clean up:

Common Ground

2008-10-23T14:02:00.000-07:00

We don't get really excited about this upcoming commerical candy day, but Holden and I have found a common ground we can work together on! (our common-ness has been butting heads lately!!)

Along with the fact that he is always asking me for food lately, this has been a good little treat! Now if I can only teach him to slice the muffin, slice the cheese (bc he already knows how to cut it..hahaha!!), and work the microwave life will be grand!!

The idea came from the Family Fun magazine.

One year, and I missed it.

2008-10-11T07:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Oct 8, 2008 could not have a stranger day! The boys were slow getting ready for school, I was rushing them, we were already later than I like to be. It was somewhere around 8:30 am. A broom by the door to the garage decided to fall over and the handle completely took out my big cup of coffee sitting on my computer desk! Great! All through out the day I kept slipping on wet floors, almost broke my ankle stepping out of the truck, even got a big slash of boiling water down my body! This is not me!! I am not a clumsy person. All day I just kept thinking "what the heck is wrong with me!"

But flash back one year. October 8, 2007. Approx. 8:30 am. I am standing next to my bed, looking out the window, talking to Rob and properly holding a cup of coffee. Then all of a sudden it was on the floor...and all over the bed, the night stand, the wall. For no reason at all. Within the next 30 minutes my dad called to say my mom had passed away in her sleep.

God calls for our attention in soo many ways. I had totally forgotten about my mom's passing on Wed. He, probably with her coaxing :) , tried all day to get me to slow down and focus on Him. It took me until Saturday while working in the yard to remember.

I miss you everyday Mom.

They really do just PULL it!

2008-09-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

So I, April, have had this weird tooth issue going on with one of my top molars. It's called resorbtion..? It's were the body, for some reason, re-sorbs the calcium from the middle of the tooth. Well, my dentist, who is also a high school friend, tried saving the tooth, but today it's life came to an end. Quite unexpectedly!

I knew something was going on with it, so I wanted to have him just take a look at it before we go camping with Big and Grandmother the rest of the week. As it turns out, it was in the process of dying. I first opted to get an appointment with the type of dentist that can give you the real gas and put you to sleep. But then the mommy in me said, that will just involve more babysitters, someone to drive me, blah, blah, blah,,,,,oh just pull the darn thing!!

And I just have to share to warn anyone who has never had a tooth pulled....they really do just grab the plyers, grab your tooth, wiggle it and PULL! I almost feel violated!! But I did not feel any pain at all. It's just WILD!!

So if you happen to think about my sad little tooth, just say a prayer that I don't get a dry socket while we are camping this week!!!

School Time!!!

2008-09-05T07:22:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day back to preschool for the boys! They are both really excited. Gage has the same teachers that Holden had last year and we love them!!

Here's the pic I took of them last year, when Gage started in January, and the one I took this morning! Note where the top of Gage's head came to on the door in the two pics!!

Our babies are growing up, no longer babies, but we enjoy life so much with them the older they get! It does not make me sad seeing them go off and grow. (Next year in Kindergarten may be different!!) We are so thankful for these two MOST precious gifts from our Lord and Savior. We are so undeserving and yet He just keeps trusting us to guide and direct these children of His. Isn't it amazing....

Russellville!

2008-08-22T06:49:00.000-07:00

This was our annual end of summer trip to Big and Grandmother's house in Russellville, AL. It's a very special trip for all of us...except Dada who stays home and works! But it's just that important to him that the boys get to spend time there and with family. I don't know how we did not get a single picture of Uncle Hiccup or Aunt Nikki! Or the watermelon festival!?? Guess we'll just have to go back!!

11 Years In The Making!!

2008-08-11T06:26:00.000-07:00

Rob and I both grew up camping with our families. Since we have been together, our camping experiences have been either in tents, on the boat, or crashing in Grandmother and Bigs campers! Well, that all changed this weekend! For 11 years our goal has been to get a pop-up camper and this weekend the time was finally right for us to fulfill our dream!

We found it on Craigslist and had to go to Wilmington, NC to pick it up. We got into an "old school" campground and then spent time playing around at Carolina Beach, NC.

We simply feel that we have been blessed beyond measure again. The boys love camping and we love the time it gives us together with no interruptions and distractions. We are busting at the seams with excitement over all the fun and family times we will share together in our new pop-up! We already have a week at Hunting Island State Park near Beaufort, SC reserved for September and a week at the Disney Fort Wilderness Campground for next May!! Big and Grandmother will be joining us for both those adventures!! We can't wait!!

Getting back to summer!!

2008-07-20T06:43:00.000-07:00

Now that June has past and the clean up has begun, we found a little time yesterday to enjoy summer! We spent a few hours at the pool and then decided to go out on the lake for some tube riding and to watch the purple martins (it's a Lake Murray thing...).

Holden is big enough this year to ride the tube and it's his new favorite thing! It makes Mommy trust God more!!!

June gets crazy!

2008-07-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Since we seem to have friends who we only stay in touch with by blogging, I guess need to update - they think we are permenatley stuck at Saluda Shoals!!!

June gets crazy for us every summer because we run a BIG fireworks stand in Chapin. Somewhat redneck, we know, but as long as I get to stay at home with our boys the other 51 weeks out of the year, we do it. So that keeps us busy until about mid-July once it is all said and done.

We really have so much fun doing this each year. We have many "customers" who support us each year and it is always fun to see them and give them all our "freebies".

I had to include this picture for 'ole time sake and to remember how much God keeps blessing us in this endeavor. This was our first stand 5 years ago. It has since rotten in a field somewhere, and we now sell out of the checkered trailor, and a new stand we purchased this year and opened for the first time in Irmo.

So, being so busy with this, it doesn't leave much time for mommy with her camera! I did get a few pictures of Holden's first VBS, but they are on my neighbors camera!! Then there was the awesome Saturday following the 4th where our neighborhood does a big cookout, water activities and then we put on the fireworks show! - There again, I was too involved and happy to have playtime with the boys, I did not have the camera!! This picture doesn't do justice, but this is a huge waterslide they make out of a billboard sign and sprinklers - it the blue hill behind the pool...

It was alot of fun and a dozen kids (and adults!!) could continously go down it.

There you have it. We have been stuck somewhere...in the land of fireworks!

Another day of staying cool!

2008-06-17T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is Saluda Splash. It's at one of our local recreation parks. It took the boys a little while to get comfortable with it but by the end they really enjoyed it. Gage, who HATES getting his ears wet, even ran under one of the waterfalls a few times!! The water comes from the river that runs off the lake and it was really cold! Holden's lips were turning blue by the time we left!

Heat Wave!!

2008-06-09T11:16:00.001-07:00

Here's a few ways we have been beating this crazy heat!!

Congrats Zachary & Nicholas!!!

2008-06-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

This weekend was spent traveling to Rob's home town of Russellville, AL to celebrate the Rob's nephews graduating from Russellville High School! It was an awesome weekend and we are so proud of them!

After 10+ plus years of knowing the boys, I can finally tell you who is who!! Nicholas is on the left of Rob, Zachary on the right! (Truthfully the facial hair helps!!..otherwise I have to see their cars, girlfriends or guitars!!!)

To clarify to friends who don't know the family, Rob's brother is only 2 years older then he. However, he got married much younger than Rob, and had kids some 14 years sooner! It's funny to Rob to go back home and see his classmates having kids graduate from high school and his have not even graduated preschool yet!!

As usual it was a wonderful, but all to quick trip home. Big and Grandmother leave today for their month ON the beach in their motorhome in South Florida...otherwise the boys and I would still be there!! Pray for Aunt Nikki - she needs a few days of emotional recovery after graduation!!

....and to entice Z & N on their first road trip....Uncle Rob is lining up a REALLY fast boat ride and lots of time of the lake to play! I know you got cool new cars, but we'll still let you drive the bug! We love you guys!! We are so excited for the awesome life God has before you!!

I had to add this pic taken this weekend after scrolling down our blog and seeing the one I used on "Happy Birthday Big". It's been about 2 years I guess since taking a picture of all the Tutich Boys together. There has only been one biological Tutich girl that we know of. Big would have been the last of these Tutich's (right?), but we seem to keep having sets of 2 Tutich boys... and I am not trying for that infamous girl!!!!

Sometimes you just gotta do, what you gotta do!

2008-05-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was the boys last day of preschool for this year! I think they have been feeling the impending change and my kids respond to change....and it is usually a little uneasy. Rob's work is settling in after all the new changes with the new company and he's felt a lull of sorts. So it occured to me on the 10 minute ride home from preschool...."We're going camping!" Let's call it an intervention of sorts but we all needed it! With the help of my wonderful neighbor distracting the boys for me, within 3 hours I was setting up camp at the state park! Granted Rob still had to go to work and only got to spend the evenings but it was enough change of rountine that we all needed. Wish I could say that is was the "attitude adjustment" we all needed, but unfortunatley,no! Perhaps that will come after a weekend in Russellville,Alabama next weekend with the Tutich side of the family! We're going over for Rob's nephew's graduation from high school. It will probably be busy and it will be short, but it is always good!

I think I am also going to suffer, with many others, the end of another American Idol season. This was the first season we have actually watched, and even voted on the finale! (I am starting to feel old!!) I must say that I did pick the winner a few weeks back, and got way to attached to a crazy show!!! I really need to get back to scrapbooking!!

Blessed Beyond Measure,Once Again!

2008-05-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

The past few days I have been wondering what today would bring. How was my first mother's day without my mom here going to play out. God blessed my heart this morning by bringing it to my attention just how many "mom's" I have had. Ladies who walked along side my mom or me at some point in my life. (Thankfully, they were all much more talkative than my mom!)

Betty Heaton, Bet-bet as I called her, lived on Hilton Head with us and was my mom's closest friend since before I was born. Now as a mom of small children I appreciate even more her friendship to my mom, especially while I was little. I know she changed plenty of my diapers! She has the best laugh. Though time and miles have separated us over the years, she is and will always be one of the greatest treasures of my life.

Carol Eck, also a neighbor and friend from Hilton Head, would let me spend the night with them from time to time before they had a child. ( That too I can appreciate now that I have children!!!) With the birth of their child, I was given a wonderful opportunity to experience infancy, and true compassion. Things that would come to be so valuable to me in raising my own children.

Carol Anderson was one of my first teachers when we moved to Chapin. She would later become my cheerleading coach, and so much more to me (but we won't go there!). She helped steer me through those high school years and off to college. Then some 13 years later she taught me to sew! She has recently moved to Atlanta but I still think of her often! I miss you!

Jeni Reffner, well, I can't tell you all that SHE got me through!! She was my college cheerleading coach and friend and mom!! She did not steer me through college as much as she held on with with white knuckles and Prayed!!!

And then there is my mom(in-law)! Joanna Tutich, my mom by marriage, but the mother God knew I would need to survive her son, her grandsons, lossing my mom, and all the other adventures God has written for my life! She is all I have left now after losing my mom and both of my grandparents. God knew it would come down to me and her and He placed us perfectly with one another.

So, I am not sad today. I am thankful that Jesus Christ is my Savior. That He calls me His Child. That He protects me and guides me. That He has placed other special "mom's" in my life to shape me into the mother and child He wants me to be.

I love you Mom. I miss you. Happy Mother's Day.
April

Happy Birthday Big!!!

2008-05-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

Today is Granddaddy Big's 75th Birthday! "Big", as Gage has shortened it to, is Rob's Dad. He is a survior of breast cancer, a giant teddy bear and the best granddaddy 4 little boys could ask for! Actually, his first 2 grandsons are 18 year old twins who will graduate from high school this month! We are so thankful God has kept him healthy and so full of life! We are blessed that he loves to travel and unless we are meeting them on a little weekend getaway somewhere, they are at our house about once a month! ....from North Alabama!!...it's about 9 hour drive!!! He a true example of a Dad's and Graddaddy's love!!

WE LOVE YOU BIG!!

Why are the simpliest things sometimes so HARD!!!???!!!

2008-05-04T17:40:00.000-07:00

Well, my title was actually referring to taking the boys to have their pictures made. It has taken me over 6 months!! I would get hair cuts coordinated, bc Gage hates it and Holden's has to be cut twice as often as Gage's, and then Gage would insist on jumping off the couch and hitting his forhead smack on the corner of the coffee table!! This has happened atleast twice!

But now it's finally done! The pictures have been taken.....but you can't see them! All I wanted to do was scan one and post it....once again a simple, quick task....but it tells me something is "corrupt or incorrectly formatted"....blah, blah, blah....so it's back to doing the dishes....and maybe it will happen another day!....along with pics of our backyard project!!!

Happy Spring!

Boat Campin!

2008-04-29T04:09:00.001-07:00

Birthdays 4 & 3

2008-04-26T10:25:00.000-07:00

Holden's 4th birthday was in February. He is holding the newest member of our family which was his birthday present. He is appropriately named "Stuart".

Gage's 3rd birthday was in March. Granddaddy Big and Grandmother were here in their motorhome and we spent Gage's birthday with them at the State Park near our house! Nothing makes Gage happier than to be with his "Big"! Nothing makes him madder than singing Happy Birthday, and don't dare ask him to blow out the candle!! ???

How it all began

2008-04-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

A few times over the past year, my precious husband has tried to persuade me to start a blog page for our family. I have clenched my teeth everytime and waited for the desire to attack me. It never did. It just continued to feel as overwhelming as my photo scrapbooking can tend to get!

However, in wanting to bless him with a meaningful, loving, perfect, inspiring gift for our 9th wedding anniversary, here I am.

I honestly have to say that what inspired me to fullfill his wish is a project that we are working on in our backyard. It is a project that has deep roots in both of our families, and is now finding a home in our family. I look forward to sharing the finished project soon!

So, let me explain my cheeziness!! You really have to know Rob to understand what documenting family events and information means to him. He treasures our time together as a family, treasures providing for his family and supporting us in all we desire. He is a real man who faces struggles, leans on God and is sensitive to those around him. We knew within weeks that "we were the ones" for each other. That God had us each on a journey to find one another. Our journey together over the past 9+ years has been one we would not change. Our wedding, our farm house, our horse, our dog, our travels, our N(eurological) ICU experience, our moves, our boys, our battles, our tears, our boats, our tents, our VW bug are all the small pieces that make up us; our legacy that we are building for our children, our grandchildren.

So to Rob, I hope that you will recieve this as a gift of my heart, my time, my love and my desire to share and nuture our life and family together. I love you with all that I am. Thank your for the last 9 years and all that the years to come have to offer!!