Christmas is Coming!

Well it's the day before Christmas Eve! I had decided that this year I just had to make tamales. I needed to try it, and see if I could do it! They turned out OK, but next time I will probably change a few things. I haven't decided yet if that will be next year or tomorrow!

My sister had a wonderful idea, she and her boyfriend took the kids shopping for presents for everyone! And they are also going to get more stuff for cookies. . . which will be another post later today :D . . . maybe. . .

Here they are about to go on their expidition! Buddy and Linc are BRAVE, very brave

Christmas Light Tradition

It has become a tradition to put the kids to bed early one night in December and then 10 minutes later rush in and tell them that we are going to look at Christmas lights! This is fun for all 4 of us, the kids love the surprise and think it's funny to go to the car in pajamas and no shoes; and we think it's fun to surprise them. We take hot chocolate and this year we had glasses that you put on and it makes every light a star or snowflake. So this was our Friday Night on the town.

The Beginning of our journey

The end of our journey!

Maddy's Christmas program

Last Sunday the Pre-K/Kindergarten classes at our church sang a few songs during the service. Maddy actually had a part and sang Away in a Manger with 3 other girls. I did get a video, but not of the whole song, since my main objective was to take the pictures. Aaron did get a full video of the program so we'll have that. I asked my mom if I should even bother posting a video of part of the song, and she said I should. . . so here you go!

O Christmas Tree

Friday we went and bought our first real Christmas tree and put it up! We finished decorating the inside of the house and then Saturday we decorated the tree!

Sunday we took our Christmas card pictures.

Thanksgiving and Bonus Material!

I feel like I could post 3 separate things, it's been awhile since I have felt I had something "bloggable" and now it's flooded the Hunter house!

Thanksgiving was super! We were able to spend it with our great friends Chris and Lesley and their family. Lesley's brother and his wife (also good friends of ours) live here and Lesley's parents were here. Aaron's good friend, Matt, from Rocky Mountain College was able to come (he is living in the panhandle of Texas right now). It was great to reminisce with him and I know Aaron had fun doing guy stuff and talking about guy things with him.

Friday Aaron, Matt and Chris put up our Christmas lights and then put up Chris' lights. I think they look good, even Matt said they look professional. We have some small Christmas trees to add in front of the pillars, but I still have plants there! The trees are getting so big they block it now, but the whole front of the house has a string of lights on it.

Friday evening Jacob and I came back from an errand and he slammed his thumb in the car door! It had latched and as a reaction he yanked it out! He screamed, "I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding!" and we finally got him inside and over the kitchen sink and I took one look at it and said "We need to go to the ER" I can't say how thankful I am that Matt was still here!! He stayed at our house with Maddy and Aaron, Jake and I went to the ER. Well, Jake slammed his thumb at 9pm, we walked into the ER at 9:20, saw the nurse at 10:30, had an X-ray at 11:30, 2:00 I sent Aaron home to get some rest and be there in case Maddy woke up and started panicking (we think she would have just panicked and not awaken Matt) Jake and I saw the doctor at 3:30, Jacob was stitched up at 4:30 and we were discharged at 5am! During the hours and hours that we waited Jacob was in high spirits, he was showing everyone his thumb when they asked what happened, and telling everyone he was like Luke Skywalker (when he gets his hand cut off). This trip to the ER validated why I never like going to the ER! I must say that the care we received was super! The doctor was more patient than I was, and was very contentious! Praise God it was just 3 stitches! We are still praying that it will heal right, it's still not pretty to look at.

Aaron and Matt went hunting Saturday morning at 6:30am, yes just 90 minutes after Jake was discharged! Chris and Rick (Lesley's brother) picked Aaron and Matt up and they went quail hunting until about 2pm. Then Matt had to leave.

it's a bird, it's a plane. . . no it's WONDER BREAD with added IRON!

I promised this . . . and we are putting it up in the attic today so Aaron put it on again for me. He wore it on Halloween, but somehow we didn't get 1 picture!

Weekend Warriors

Our church has gotten a flag-football team together and today was their first game. As expected they lost 28-12. I don't mean to be down on them, they are playing against teams that have been practicing 3-4 times a week and have been together for 2+ years. This is the first time these guys have played together and they have had 3 practices. None of them have played flag-football either which is mentally different than tackle football so much of today was learning the rules. They are doing well though and I will keep you updated on their success!

Weekend in the Texas mountains

We spent Friday and Saturday at a cabin outside of Ft. Davis Texas. Our good friends had some friends from Wyoming in town last week and invited us to go to a cabin with them. Their daughter Skyler was 4 on Friday, you'll notice her shirt. On Saturday morning some of us went for a hike. My friend Lesley stayed back with her 2 kids and Maddy. Jacob actually went with the rest of us on pretty tough hike, and didn't complain one time!

Trick or Treat!

Well our Halloween events were different than we planned. We were planning to walk with our family around our neighborhood. Some of our neighbors had a party complete with a hay ride. Which we used to do, but the neighbors that started it have moved so we didn't think there was going to be one this year. Well our other neighbors picked it up. There was no way there could be 2 trailers with hay and our kids not ride! We tried to talk them out of it, but the common courtesy rule "we weren't invited" doesn't work very well when your kids know half of the kids on the trailer! We asked and of course the neighbors said they could ride, I apologized later for "crashing" their hay ride. The neighbor was sweet and said we totally would have been invited if she would have had our email. Here are our pictures, Jacob was Commander Rex from Star Wars the Clone Wars. Maddy was a mermaid, she said she wanted to be one of Ariel's sisters and so of course we had to straighten her hair. My friend Lesley made her "tail" and loaned me material for the "shells" and I sewed the shells on!

I just realized as I was uploading these that there are NO pictures of Aaron as Wonder bread! I will have to sweet talk him into putting it back on at least for a picture. Because let me tell you THAT is BLOGGABLE!

PreHalloween Happenings

I thought I should post the events that we have been up to lately before I need to post our picture of costumes tonight! On the 25th my MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) group had a "Pumpkin stickering, smores" party. Here are the moms that were present. And another of all our kids! WHOA!

Monday night we carved our pumpkins since that was the only night we had free. One of Jake's friend's, Gabe, joined us. We had a good time hahaha, I even burned some pumpkin seeds I was trying to roast, so the house was full of smoke! I did not however set off the smoke alarm, yea!
The one next to the flower pot with the "O" face is Maddy's pumpkin. The other one in this picture is mine, Aaron even scraped out my seeds for me. What a guy! He was doing that so that I could burn the pumpkin seeds. This last picture Aaron actually did a time lapse and he was able to hold the camera still for 30 seconds! It turned out super! The pumpkin next to the flower pot is Aaron's and other is Jacob's. This was the first year both kids did their OWN! Maddy had a little help but once she got the hang of the pumpkin knife she was able to do it by herself! Enjoy these and I will be posting more tomorrow.
COMING SOON . . . THE RETURN OF WONDER BREAD!!!

I was just Tagged

Well this is a first! My friend Kyla just tagged me, twice I think. . . this is all new to me. I had to post the 4th picture from the 4th album, & the 6th picture from the 6th album. Now my pictures are not organized like I would like, but I did my best! Here is the 4th pic in album 4

Maddy is about 4 and a half months and was trying to eat her toy that shook. We were still in college at our Butte apartment, good memories!

Here is the 6th pic in album 6 it was taken in Feb. of 2006 Jake was 5 and Maddy 7 months. It may have been one of the first times she drank from a cup. Just 2months after the 4th pic of 4th album was taken and we were already in Texas!

Here's one for you Kyla, as I was looking for albums I found this. I think we gave you a copy of these. I am pretty sure it was Renee's 4th b-day party.

OK all you bloggers I am tagging you! (Jen, and Angie) You must upload the 4th pic from your 4th album AND 6th pic from 6th album! Can't wait to see them!

Jacob gets the AAA award!

Jacob's school does awards after each 6 week grading period. This six weeks Jacob was honored twice! 1 for perfect attendance and 1 for the AAA award (which is the highest honor) AAA stands for Attendance (perfect attendance), Academics (all A's), Attitude! We are so proud of him! The awards are given in the form of dog tags that the kids can wear so that is the green thing around his neck. I am guessing that this way they can add to the necklace ("chain" to be more masculine) as the year progresses and they get more awards.

I have been so busy doing what I need to do each day that I haven't blogged in awhile, plus that there really hasn't been anything bloggable ;)

This weekend I have another conference, it seems like that's all I do. . . well this one is at our church so I will be able to come home tonight and then tomorrow I will be done in the afternoon. We, well Aaron and the kids, will probably do smores tonight as has been our Friday night tradition since the night I posted about it. hahaha last Friday we even handed some over the fence to our neighbors :) Biscuit wanted to eat them though (our neighbors I mean hahaha). She was growling and meant business! She did stop when we told her to and was totally fine when their youngest (2 yr.) came into our yard to say hi. Not sure what we have planned for the rest of the weekend, probably just to chill and watch football. My family is into picking the games and we have our own group on yahoo, so it's getting pretty heated! My mom is actually pulling ahead which is very amusing!

I will post soon about Maddy, she is doing some awesome things too!

Jacob's Apple Video

Here is a video Jacob has made for a presentation in his Quest class. They are studying change this year, and I think he wants to show how an apple changes. Add to that, he gets to use a cool contraption, and bring a snack to class! Thank you to his wonderful teacher for allowing his creativity!

Gaga over "Go Fish" Guys

At the MOPs convention my friends brought a big picture of them and Go Fish to autograph for Go Fish. This is a video of that moment! As I understand, they hung it up at their booth for the rest of the convention, unfortunately we were afraid they would think we were stalking them so none of us went by there again!

Praise the Lord in the little things

Our new puppy, Biscuit, is a full Red Heeler! The very kind of dog I wanted.
I had told God that if he wanted us to have another dog that he would have to bring it to us because there was no way we could pay for another one and Aaron would not go for it. I don't think that I said in that prayer that it needed to be a heeler at all, just another dog.
My God is a God of details who knows the very desires of your heart and just like a father, who wants to show you love!

MOPs Convention

What a wonderful weekend I had. It was filled with friends, girly food, shopping, and several great speakers on parenting! I'll try not to bore you with details, but there were a few very bloggable moments that I must share.

We flew to Grapevine, TX (a suburb of Dallas) on Thursday morning and were in our rental van by 8:30 I believe. We had time to grab some coffee and breakfast at a coffee place and then it was on to Sam Moon (never been there before, but it's my new fav!) I walked in and was too much for my senses! I literally did not know where to begin! There must have been more than 20 tables piled high (over my HEAD) with purses of all different kinds and colors all around $20!, I finally settled on one that was big enough to carry my 32 oz. water bottle and still look cute. It's Zebra print with some brown accents so that it will go with everything I wear! There was tons of jewelry too which I indulged in since the sensory overload had passed. After that we went to an outdoor shopping area and it was time for lunch (I switched purses on the way!). We ate at Cafe Express and I had the smoked turkey cob (I think) the best part was that as a dug my fork in for the first bite it sank! I looked closer, and it was topped with a half an avocado! I sighed and was so excited, I believe I even called it a totally "bloggable" salad, sorry I did not get a picture, Kara was giving me a hard time about that. After that it was off to a bunch of stores and lots of looking which was fabulous! Then I think we went to the hotel (Gaylord Texan) it was like a compound, you go over part of Grapevine lake to get there! We got through all of the crazy mommies and got to our room and all checked in for the convention and looked around a little bit then put on our awesome "Go Fish" tattoos and went down to buy some "Go Fish" CDs (if you haven't heard of them you HAVE to follow this link! http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkc9-SvqfDM

Friday was more of the convention, but at 6 the convention was over for the day and we went to a shopping mall to eat and shop! Saturday morning in our first General session Plumb performed, that was way neat, I love her and I never knew it! The rest of the day was the same with all of the convention stuff and shopping afterward, but we went to P.F. Chang's (MY FAVORITE!) for dinner way awesome! Sunday was sleep in, and more shopping! Then to the airport for the ride home. It was a truly wonderful weekend, can you tell I had the most fun with my friends? Here is a picture of us and our Go Fish tattoos, which were a total hit, and everyone wanted one! Good Job Kara!

New kind of alert system

So today I hear Izzy barking her, "I found something you need to see" bark (the kind a hunting beagle would use when they have found or are onto a fox). Yes you know me, I am the kind of dog mom that can tell, or at least tries to figure out what my dog is telling me. I swear, Izzy has different inflections and tones for different things. One kind of bark for people in the alley, one for when she finds things (scorpions, turtles) and one for when she is telling us she wants inside.
I digress, Izzy was telling me I need to come see something so I looked out and see our sweet, sweet Biscuit DIGGING in my basil pot! So I went out and told Biscuit, "No, no" THE END

Sorry, but this is funny to me because not 2 months ago Izzy RUINED 2 of my nice flower pots by doing the SAME THING. Suddenly she knows it's wrong! Caught me as humorous, thanks for reading.

Coming Soon. . . Erin's MOPs weekend!

Biscuit

Well, it's semi-official; we have adopted another dog! We found her on our street she is a mutt but we think she has some Terrier and some Brittany Spaniel or some kind of Spaniel in her. She is a sweet, sweet girl. I took her to the vet to see if there was a microchip in her, but there was not and the girl that had checked said that it was a puppy, about 5-6 months old. Aaron has named her Biscuit because that is what she looks like, I have to say it fits.

It was a little touch and go with Izzy, but I think they are already pretty good friends and it hasn't been an entire week yet. She is a sweet dog, have I said that yet? She is wonderful with the kids and currently isn't as mouthy, or rambunctious as Izzy. That may change as she is still a little timid, but there are already huge personality differences between our two dogs. Izzy loves having a friend and playmate, she is really the kind of dog that needed a friend.

Biscuit will have some shots done on Wednesday and then it will probably feel more official. HAHAHA, once I pay for the shots! She isn't leash, or house trained so we get to start from the beginning on that, but she is a total people pleaser (much more than Izzy ever was) so I think it will come quickly. I just have to figure out how to give Izzy the same attention or more and still have time to train Biscuit.

Jacob's hair

We were going to get a haircut for Jacob today because as you may have noticed in the Apple Day and Smore pictures he needed a hair cut BAD! I picked him up after school and we drove across town to the one place that has video games you can play while they cut your hair. We got there and realized that it's Monday, they are closed on Monday! So on the way home we are talking about his hair and he tells me that he would like to grow it out even more (like Zach and Cody on the Disney Channel) so I say ok, I will cut your bangs and we'll call it good! (while I am thinking, sweet I just saved $15!) So we got home and he realized what I was thinking and didn't want any part of it! hahaha, well mom won this round. I cut his bangs and then had to show him online that it did look like Zach and Cody. Which I don't think he believes me even now, why did they have to have their hair flipped to the side instead of combed straight, that did not help me! Anyway, it's done! and it looks cute, or handsome I should say!

Smore Please

We made smores Friday! It was so much fun!

Our dog Izzy joined us of course, and she didn't repeat what she did at dinner fortunately! ~At dinner she took a piece of ham right out of Maddy's hand when Maddy wasn't looking, yikes, Izzy was in BIG trouble!~

Our Maddy

This is how Maddy went to school on Thursday! And it was NOT "dress crazy day" HAHAHAHA can you believe all I said was, "do you realize you have one tie-dyed sock and one white? Do you care?" (I didn't mention that she had a print shirt and striped pants) And of course her answer was, "No" she wouldn't hold still to take this picture either, how typical.

Apple Day!

Apples, apples, and more apples! My friend Lesley and I had so much fun making and canning apple butter, apple jelly, jalapeno jelly, and apple cider! We worked for over 8 hours, while our kids played! Lesley said she is still finding things that are so Jake, like her tomato cage turned upside-down in a tree with a dog leash attached (who knows what that contraption did). Here are some pictures of us working away. Here are Jake and Maddy, and then Lesley's kids, Skyler and Canyon.