Hello from the
Hackings! Yes we are still alive! We apologize for the lateness of this letter
but, aside from the craziness that comes with raising a large family, we have
been on one heck of a ride this year, sliding, headfirst, right into 2016. The
year went by in what felt like one fast breath for our family.
We have decided
that 2015 was a year full of memories, growth and endurance for our family,
experiencing both exhilarating moments that we never wanted to let go of and
exhausting lows that we wished we could have passed through a little more
quickly.
January brought birthdays for Ethan- 7 and Brooks- 6, and a
baptism for Talon as he proudly turned 8 in December, the year before.
I don't think
Anjella will EVER forget this trip! Ellie, who had been sharing a bed with Anjella,
got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and never came
back to bed.
Anjella woke 2
hours later to find that Ellie had never returned from the bathroom. After
searching the whole house, she woke most of the adults in the home and they all searched the whole
house again, as well as the surrounding horse property.
Terror filled those that were
searching for her as they all feared that Ellie, with high functioning autism
and deep passion for horses, had slept walked outside to be with the horses, in
the freezing temperatures, and had never made it back into the house.
Eventually she was
found in bed with grandma and grandpa Wilkey, sleeping at their feet, covered
with blankets! That is surely a tale that will be told to Ellie's children!
March brought a life impacting surgery for Anjella, a full hysterectomy, in hopes of restoring her health to her. Life kind of held still that month for the
Hacking family. We were all so grateful that we were able to
celebrate our sweet, happy Bailey's 4th birthday before the surgery!
April brought
another surgery for James' Father. This time on his lungs, as he was having a
lot of trouble breathing. It was later discovered that he has a slow moving
Leukemia.Ugh....
James' brother,
Mark came out to visit their dad while he was recovering. We were so happy to get to spend some time with him. While he was visiting us he worked all day on a
room in our home that needed some repairs done. We were so grateful for his help,
love, and his time.
Easter is always fun. The kids were able
to attend a special Utah Foster Care Easter egg hunt and Anjella's
parents were kind enough to tag along and help out.
April also brought the pinewood derby, where Charlie (and
Dad) earned 2nd place.
May brought us
Mother's Day, our 17th wedding anniversary, the end of the school year, all the end of the school year PROGRAMS, some warmer weather, and soccer. Lots and lots of soccer. We
had 7 children playing Summer Soccer this year!
Talon also tried out
for a competition hip-hop team and not only made it on the team, but he also
earned a full ride scholarship to his dance school. The very generous owner of the school
really wanted Talon to develop his talent for dance. He shared his talent in the
school talent show, as well as at a dance performance that loved ones were
able to attend.
The warmer weather brought beautiful, healing, warm rays. Our family all enjoyed playing up
Provo canyon, or just hanging out in our back yard having bar-b-ques.
June was the best
month EVER! June and July were unbelievably CRAZY FUN months! June brought Anjella's parents moving to Utah and
Anjella's sister and the Kentucky cousins to our house for a month long visit!
Can you believe it? 17 children were residing at our house for a whole month!
It was a never ending party at the Hacking home!
We spent the time
Kayaking at Deer Creek Reservoir, swimming at 7 Peaks, Splashing through splash
parks, camping near Hacking Lake, hiking up Hobble Creek Canyon, visiting Hogle
Zoo, running a muck at Cabella's, admiring the art at the chalk festival in
Salt Lake, playing games and staying up late talking. We were also able to go
to a family get-together at Anjella's aunt & uncle's house, complete with a
parade and fireworks!
Anjella's brother
Mark and his cute wife also came out here for a visit before their new baby
arrived. We were finally able to meet her!
And we celebrated Father's Day, Cassandra's & Matthew's 14th birthdays somewhere in between all that.
And we celebrated Father's Day, Cassandra's & Matthew's 14th birthdays somewhere in between all that.
July just continued the party. It started off with the wonderful experience of going to the temple with Valorie's family, so that their family could be sealed together forever.
The experience was
beyond amazing, as not only were Valorie, Gerry and their children sealed to each
other, which was amazing enough, but Valorie's grandparents were sealed to each
other, Valorie's mother sealed to her parents, and Valorie was able to be
sealed to her birth parents, connecting 4 generations of family together for
all eternity. What an honor and privilege to be able to participate in that
glorious, memorable experience.
July also brought a family reunion for Anjella's side of the family. The family spent time picnicking, catching up, playing in the park, throwing water balloons, and ice blocking down a HUMONGOUS hill. It was so wonderful to have so many family members all together at one time!
We celebrated
THREE birthdays in July! Ellie turned nine, Owen turned SIXTEEN, and cute
little Kate celebrated her 8th birthday with us!
But as all good
things much come to and end, we said good bye to Valorie and her family, as
they made the long trek back to Kentucky.
Since we love
being out doors snuck another camping trip in, this time to Heber. The kids
loved the huge fallen log we had to cross to get to our camp site. But our
family's highlight of this camping trip was watching Matthew catch several fish
with nothing but a fishing net and his bare hands! The kids didn't want to ever
leave the lake!
August meant it
was time to start school again, but not before celebrating Allison's 7th
Birthday, taking one last camping trip to Vernal, reuniting with one of James'
favorite cousins after many years apart, and Owen, Matthew, and Charlie going
to a color festival, where they throw chalk in the air... and at each other.
Ellie loved August because her and Talon had a blast attending their first
rodeo. One of the young competitors even let Ellie ride her horse around the
parking lot!
In September we celebrated Emma's 5th and Amelia's 8th
Birthdays. They were born on the same day, 3 years apart.
Allison also had
corrective surgery on both her feet in September. She was so brave! She had to
be in non weight bearing, casts that came most of the way up her thighs. Then
she wore below the knee walking casts for 4 weeks, and then specially made
braces that she will discontinue in January (2 months!). She enjoyed the wagon
rides that her family would take her on while she was still in recovery.
October - Amelia
turned 8 in September which meant she was able to be baptized in October. Funny
story, when we were taking Amelia's baptism pictures, up Provo Canyon with all
the beautiful Fall leaves, a whole bus full of Chinese tourist saw her in her
beautiful white dress and all wanted to take pictures with Amelia. She felt
like she was princess! She looked SO beautiful, we could see why they all
wanted to get their picture with her!
October also
brought the Chili Cook off at church. Anjella won 1st place this year for the
Pumpkin Chili that she made. It was so delicious and unique! She won 1st place
for the dessert portion of the competition too, but due to a mix up with the
voting numbers, two people had the same number. They said they knew that
Anjella had won, but due to the fact that Anjella wins the 1st place dessert
trophy EVERY year, they were going to give it to the other person. It was funny
and Anjella was very happy to let her friend have it this time!
With all the
beautiful Fall weather, James & Anjella snuck up to Sundance with some
close friends for a date night, to ride the ski lift, look at all the beautiful
Fall leaves changing color, and to have a fun picnic dinner. It was so fun!
It rained a lot in
October but with a small break in the weather, our family also was able to go
to the pumpkin patch in town where we picked out our Halloween pumpkins, rode the
hay ride and wondered through the hey maze. Trick-or-Treating was also a blast
with so many wee ones to dress up and enjoy it! We got way too much candy again
this year, like always!
November was a harder month. Talon had to have an urgent
surgery due to some unexplained internal bleeding. It ended up being polyps.
Luckily it wasn't a hard fix and he was back to normal in no time!
Anjella &
James, and James' dad were able to go on a very quick weekend trip to
California to visit James' brother and sister, thanks to the generosity of
James brother and sister living just up the street. They watched all our kiddos
while we were gone!
Our sister (in-law)
has had some health problems and we both felt like we needed to make that trip
down to go see her. It was SO GOOD to see them, talk with them, spend time with
them, and just hug them.
The day after we
got back, Anjella had surgery again. This time on her foot due to a foot
deformity. The surgery was a little more complicated than everyone anticipated
and left her foot broken in 4 places, and added 2 screws, a pin, and a whole
lot of pain and swelling. She had a long recovery ahead of her but she is
hopeful that the outcome will be worth all the pain!
Since Charlie is
in 5th grade this year, he got to go to special camp for 2 days with his class.
He had so much fun!
December was just
plain Chaos! We all were sick all month. We had school Christmas singing
programs and Matthew's Ballroom performance, and we were able to ride the polar
express train, put on by local families in our area. You get to ride a small
train and visit Santa then get back on the train and ride through the
neighborhood listening to Christian Christmas music and view pictures depicting
Christ's life. It is really nice!
Anjella worked on
a digitally built, family calendar for the Hacking side of the family, while
she continued to recover from her surgery, and she slept. A lot.
Talon and Amelia
had their hip-hop dance performances, which they had a lot of fun at and really
had a chance to shine.
We had two kiddos
that lost their two front teeth for Christmas this year, Brooks and Allison.
Brooks lost both his front teeth the same day only a few hours apart and as
soon as I got a picture of both of them Allison pulled out her third front
tooth! Craziness!
Anjella, luckily
started walking, err hobbling around Christmas Eve so we were blessed to spend
that day with James' brother's family and their parents, and have a quick hello
from cute Aunt Marsha.
We also celebrated
FOUR birthdays, James' birthday, Talon's 9th, Charlie's 11th, and Anjella's
25th... again. December went by in a flash and before we knew it, January was
here again.
We hope all is
well with your families and that you had a wonderful fun and exciting year as
well. Thank you for all the love, support, and prayers that you send in our
family's direction. They are appreciated more than you know. God bless you all!
Sincerely,
The Hacking Family
