Hunter Family

Merry Christmas 2011

2012-01-25T14:18:00.001-05:00

Thishas been a busy year for the Hunters!

After moving and getting settled into our new (to us) home in December,Amy’s parents celebrated their 50^th anniversary by taking theiradult children on a cruise around the Bahamas, Jesse had a work conference inParis (yes, that’s Paris, France!), we took a two week trip to Washington for aHubbard Family Reunion/50^th Anniversary Family Party, and managed totake a short weekend family trip to visit with Great Grandpa Hutchison. It’s been a hectic and fun year for us:

Jessehas continued to work hard to provide for his loving family. He’s researching Alzheimer’s disease andalthough he has his challenges, loves the work he is doing and hopes his careeraspirations pan out. He is continuinghis search for that coveted “senior scientist” position. He has been extremely busy with his“honey-do” list, getting the yard in order. When we bought this house last December, the back was nothing butdirt. Now the house is entirelysurrounded with pavers, has a large grassy back and a full garden. He has recently finished removing the gravelfrom the front yard and we now have a lawn coming in there as well! I’m glad those projects are finished so wecan start seeing him on the weekends again Funny sidenote – if Spencer sees someone in the yard working, or hears aleaf blower, he says, “daddy?!”.

Amyis still keeping busy at home. She hasbeen patiently waiting for Jesse to stop spending money on the yard work so shecan start thinking of what to do with the interior. Her binder is full of ideas and new projects. She wonders how she can be so busy, yet stillget so little done. The house is neverquite clean, the kitchen is never closed and the laundry…well, we won’t gothere. She’s loving her calling in Nursery(great place for snacks) and is still finding time to be a little crafty. She loves to participate in a few wholesomerecreational activities including book club, playgroup and heading up girl’snight. She also enjoys finding a bargainand considers her thrift store outings a bit therapeutic.

Isaacis doing great in 2^nd grade. He loves his teacher, is always asking, “did you know?” and then tellinghis mom something she didn’t know. Thisyear he turns 8 yrs old and is looking forward to getting baptized on New Year’sEve. He has started piano lessons andhas been playing baseball this fall. Heis an accomplished reader – Where the Red Fern Grows, Box Car Children Series,Charlotte’s Web and is looking forward to reading many more.

Keltsyis also doing really well in school. Shestarted Kindergarten this year and is already ahead of the standard. She’s reading and can count past 100 andcount by 2s. Her favorite question is, “mom, what does thisspell”? She is also having a lot of funin T-ball and is filling her afternoons playing with friends and doing“art”. She was especially thrilled whenthe lawn grew in our back yard. Shemissed the green of Indiana when we moved here to Arizona and would exclaim,“look mom, there’s grass!” whenever we would pass a patch of lawn.

Spenceris growing into a fun two year old. Hehas also grown a strong will. He is veryloving and has a few cute tricks we’ve taught him. When asked, “Who’s a cutie?” he happilyexclaims, “ME!” and when he gives kisses he says, “gross”. He is a far way off, but potty training hasbeen introduced recently and he successfully, but obliviously peed in the potty(I know, you’re glad you know that). He’s very spoiled, but very loved and a joy to have in our family.

Weare so thankful for the many, many blessings in our lives. We have continued gratitude for our family,friends and the season that reminds us of the greatest gift of all, the gift ofour Savior Jesus Christ. We hope to liveour lives as a reflection of his love.

Merry Christmas and Love -
TheHunters
Jesse, Amy, Isaac, Keltsy, and Spencer

Budgeting Meals

2011-12-06T11:05:00.001-05:00

I've been working on budgeting meals lately, I saw this promotion. Says if I post this code:

I could get a free e-copy.
So here it is and I'll see what the e-book says and write a review for you!

My review 1/21/2012:

The book was good - I was already doing some of the main suggestions, like menu planning, but I haven't delved into the world of freezer cooking yet. We don't have a freezer. I enjoyed the information on how we're paying more for less and gave suggestions for homemade convenience foods (like seasoning mixes).

If you are looking to lower your overall grocery budget, there was some useful information that I hadn't heard before. I'm not sure I learned anything super exciting that would save me a ton on my monthly budget, but a little more this month and maybe I'll learn more somewhere else and perhaps I'll write my own book someday on the things I've picked up along the way!

Christmas Pictures!

2011-12-01T11:26:00.001-05:00

It's somewhat of a tradition to set up the camera on a timer and take a family picture by the Christmas tree. Here is this years picture:

I'll post our Christmas letter later this month!

DIY Chair

2011-12-01T11:11:00.001-05:00

I've been loving some of those low cost home decorating blogs that are out there. Blogs like Centsational Girl have inspired me to start thinking outside the box when looking at second hand furniture. A few weeks ago our neighbors had left this on the curb.

Two cans of spraypaint, some clearance fabric (that was also 50% off of that clearance price!) and some faux finishing nails later, I was able to get this:

As you can see, it fits perfectly in my entryway. Don't look too close, you'll see scratches where I was hammering in the nails, cracks where the arms are still nearly broken, but it's supposed to be a pretty chair, not a functional chair - so I'm please with how it came out. In all I spent about $25 - not as cheap as I'd like, but I still have some paint, fabric and nails leftover which I will save for future projects. That side table is looking like it may want to be painted to match that chair!

T-Ball AND Baseball

2011-11-09T17:49:00.003-05:00

The kids have started the baseball season! Technically Keltsy is T-ball, Isaac is baseball...the difference being the game is played off a Tee vs. being coach pitch. Anyway, they both had games this last Saturday - of course they were both at the same time on different fields - so I attended Keltsy's game and took pictures, Jesse attended Isaac's game and took video. Here are the pictures:

I will just say, I hate my camera. This is such a fun shot, but I hate that I couldn't get the camera to focus for the first half of the game.

Here's Keltsy, in case you can't tell, she sort of zoned out this part of the game.

And here she is "down and ready"!

Spencer's Birthday!

2011-11-09T17:20:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday!!!

Spencer Preston Hunter

Oct. 18, 2009

5 lbs. 5 oz.

1 yr. old!

2 yrs. old!

October - sickies and Halloween

2011-11-08T18:27:00.011-05:00

I'm almost caught up on this blog!

Spencer and Keltsy were both sick with a croup-y virus. Keltsy responded well to the medication, Spencer didn't.

He had to have a nebulizer to get over the coughing, but that's pretty typical for him. I wonder if his prematurity has anything to do with that...

He figured out pretty quickly that it helped him breath more easily and he started taking his treatments on his own (meaning I didn't have to sit with him to keep him from pulling the mask off his face).

Poor Keltsy missed her Fall Break because of these sickies...blech!

Halloween was pretty fun at this house this year! The kid's adult cousin Brady let them play the game "Angry Birds" on his really cool phone. They were hooked and convinced Jesse to download the game onto the laptop. We went Angry Bird Crazy!

And we had a fun night at the Ward Chili Cook Off and Carnival

Our Halloween Night pictures didn't really turn out - next year I have to remember to take them BEFORE we go trick-or-treating!

Happy 6th Birthday!

2011-11-08T17:41:00.007-05:00

Happy Birthday!!!

Keltsy Ann Hunter!

7 lbs. 13 oz.

1 yr. old

2 yrs. old

3 yrs. old

4 yrs. old

5 yrs. old

6 YEARS OLD!!!

Keltsy is my sweet, darling, smart, tiny, adorable little princess.

She brings so much joy to our family, is a great little & big sister.

She has a caring heart, is a good friend,

is trustworthy, and strives to choose the right.

Fun at the Beach!

2011-11-04T18:33:00.010-04:00

Being in Arizona, we're now only about six (maybe seven) hours away from Jesse's grandfather who lives in California. We have been meaning to take a weekend trip for quite some time to visit. After Jesse's trip to Paris, we ended up with a free night at Best Western so we decided to take advantage of that and made a weekend trip of it, visit with family and take the kids for their first trip to the ocean.

The first picture above is all of us looking stiff, the second picture when grandpa was checking to make sure we smiled, we all look better, but you can't see his handsome face. It was a good visit to see Great-Grandpa, Uncle Mark and Aunt Chris (hope I spelled it everything right!). We really enjoyed seeing them and having the kids briefly meet the family. We've missed living close enough to family to be able to do these sort of trips.

Before we visited with family we had fun at the beach!

When we first got to the beach, it was warm but overcast - perfect recipe for a sunburn, by the way - and there was a pod of dolphins just a few waves away (yippee!). The beach we chose to visit was right at the end of LAX, so we were able to have fun seeing airplanes take off. We went with some friends (who are internet shy) and had a lot of fun catching up and visiting with them and their two adorable children.

I love being able to build these memories with our children!

Random Spencer Pictures

2011-11-01T17:02:00.004-04:00

When I was posting this I thought I would have pictures of all the kids, but I guess since they're in school I'm not getting as many pictures of them. So here's your dose of Spencer cuteness!

Value of hard work

2011-11-01T16:36:00.004-04:00

One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me was the value and appreciation of working hard. I managed to find someone that shares that belief as well, and it doesn't hurt that he's a looker as well ;).

As pictured above, our yard needed a lot of work. One of the project was laying pavers around the perimeter of the home. Jesse worked long (and HOT) hours on this project. It took almost every weekend for several months to complete. Here's a few pics of the kids helping dad lay the last of the pavers.

The stone wrapped from the front driveway (see background in above picture) all the way around the house to the front on the opposite side. I'm so glad THAT project is DONE!

First Day of School!

2011-11-01T16:31:00.002-04:00

School starts early in Arizona! On Aug. 8th the kids started school, Keltsy being a new Kindergartener and Isaac starting 2nd grade!

Ha, ha - I don't know why, but she ended up making funny faces for her pictures at the bus stop!

Here's both the kiddos, ready and waiting for the bus!

A Day in Utah!

2011-11-01T16:12:00.004-04:00

On our way home from the family reunion, we stopped and spent the day in Utah. It was fun to visit with the family again and look forward to when we can do it again!

Jesse's Paris Trip

2011-10-29T18:14:00.006-04:00

Random pictures from Jesse's trip to Paris

Boating!

2011-10-27T20:13:00.003-04:00

The family spent a day at the river, did a little boating and got caught up on some relaxation. It was really a lot of fun!

Family Pictures

2011-10-25T22:40:00.008-04:00

You can't have a reunion without taking pictures.

Here's mom and dad, I love their matchy-matchy outfits.

Karen's Family

My nephew Matthew and his wife Elise

Mark's Family

David's Family

Kathy's Family

Me and Mine!

We also did another day of pictures, but they aren't uploading for some reason. I'll fiddle around and see if I can get them to work.

Random pictures

2011-10-25T22:20:00.003-04:00

Spencer and Karen/Jason's baby girl Kaitlynn

Spencer found the Oreo's at grandma's house!

Spencer and Kaitlynn decided they were buddies right away.

We were able to spend time with Melissa and her girls again. Had a fun day at the Dalles city pool and then went to a wildlife museum.

Exploring the Tri-Cities

2011-10-25T14:32:00.002-04:00

We had fun with Uncle Brent, driving around trying to find Badger Mountain. We drove up as high as we could and got a picture of the Tri-Cities as well as the Columbia River Temple.

The neighborhood we drove through to had a fun little park.

We stopped and let the kids play for awhile.

While at the playground there was another little family there playing. We had been in Kennewick for a week by then, and spent the evening with Brent. Keltsy was telling this little family about our trip and she said, "My dad....I mean...(she turned and looked at me, because she couldn't remember Brent's name, so I reminded her "Uncle Brent")...I mean my Uncle Brent dad..."

I started laughing, it sounded like we were a blended family and she wasn't sure what to call this guy we were having join our family.

I assured the other family that he was in fact, really her uncle.

Summer Vacation!

2011-10-25T14:07:00.005-04:00

Summer always means a car trip or two! This year the Hubbards had a reunion. It takes two days to drive to Washington from Arizona, and a week before the reunion Jesse had a business trip so I decided to take the kids a week early and drive up myself so we could have a long visit.

Grandma has a big squishy chair that can hold two (or three) people. Can you see the fun goodies Grandma spoils her grandkids with all over their faces?

Here are Isaac and Keltsy chasing the geese after we fed them.

Then we went to the park!

Ketlsy found the butcher, baker, and candle stick maker.

She was having fun spinning them on the kitchen counter.

Uncle Brent taught Spencer how to get the treats from the kitchen cabinet, open the bag, take out the treat, close the bag and then put it away -

then he opened the treat for Spencer (and Isaac jumped in the picture)!

Mmmm! We got to attend a 'Grand Opening' of Yoplicity, frozen yogurt shop!

Grandma was a big help with the kids!

Isaac in the big chair - looking all thoughtful

And Spencer had found Grandma's piano in her study.

Boots 'n More

2011-10-25T14:00:00.004-04:00

Spencer has found his sister's boots.

He loves to wear them around the house.

They go up past his knees.

And what good is a big brother if you can't dog pile him once in awhile?!

Summer Day = Fort Building

2011-10-23T15:48:00.003-04:00

In our house we have a living room/dining room...unfortunately, we don't have a living room set/dining room set - so our formal room is really a toy room. It's great for mess making, but most especially for fort building.

Fun with Oranges

2011-10-23T15:35:00.001-04:00

Dinner time turned playtime

Picture of Keltsy

2011-10-23T15:29:00.001-04:00

Jesse wanted to try painting a picture of Keltsy, so he took her outside and took some snapshots to use as a reference. This one is my favorite one.

Memorable Visit

2011-10-23T15:14:00.003-04:00

As high school as it sounds, there are a few people in this world I consider my BFF (best friend forever). The kind of friend that has a bond so deep, you can go days, weeks, months, even years without talking - yet when you get together you can pick up right where you left off. One of those deep, dear friends is Melissa. She was one of my mission companions, roomates, bridesmaid, and will be my forever friend.

After a deep and personal loss, Melissa and her family came through our town for a visit. It was bitter sweet to see her, to share in the pain of their loss and to catch up and feel the joy of friendship and family. She has a courageous husband and three beautiful daughters. They have a beautiful eternal family.

Love you and your family Melissa!

Day of Splashing Fun!

2011-10-23T15:06:00.003-04:00

These pictures speak for themselves!

Isaac's Last Day of 1st Grade!

2011-10-23T15:01:00.005-04:00

And then Isaac had his last day. Another award ceremony for getting all As again - they don't start letter grading until 2nd grade, so his certificate says all Es.

He also got his first perfect attendance!

Keltsy's Preschool - Last Day of School Program!

2011-10-23T14:53:00.002-04:00

Last day of school, last day of school! Keltsy, my big girl, had her last day of preschool with a bang. They had a cute little program, with singing and poems and lots of fun.

Thank you Miss Kim and Miss Jesika!

Easter!

2011-10-23T14:24:00.004-04:00

Easter egg decorating is one of our favorite Easter activities. We just use water, food coloring, and a tablespoon of vinegar, instead of buying the kits.

The kids got a little fancy this year, layering, mixing, and striping their colors.

Gosh, he sure is getting big!

Oooo - stripey!

Sorry Spencer, you can watch this time, maybe next year you'll be big enough!

She sure looks more grown up with bangs!

Viola! Here's the eggs in all their glory!

Amazing April!

2011-10-22T19:37:00.004-04:00

I always love April! Here's another award ceremony for Isaac's school. He's a smarty pants, he got all As again. He's also extremely social, the kid two spaces to the right is one of his best friends, Carson. He lives around the corner from us, so they have a lot of time to spend together.

This is one of the pictures from our back yard. As you can see, it is all dirt. We've done a lot since this picture was taken last April, so keep this in mind when I post pictures later of the "After".

Keltsy has been given the same fine texture of hair that I have. We curled it for church, but knew we had to grab a picture right away - as the curls don't (and didn't) stay.

When going through our pictures for April there were a lot of Spencer. I VT a sister that teaches the baby sign language classes, I was trying to grab pictures with the intention of making a sign language book for him...but never did get it made. Maybe for Christmas???

The above picture he was doing bird. Below was "all done"!

This one he's signing baby...

And here are the kids comparing belly buttons...on top of mom...

March - the rest of the story

2011-10-22T19:11:00.005-04:00

Once we flew back to Utah, we had another day long drive home to Arizona, but we had a great trip and the kids did really well (except for Spencer, but we kind of expected that!)!

We got home, got settled back into life and our daily routine and busy schedule that comes with kids and life and all that...

Keltsy had a field trip with her preschool - the best part was getting to knock a cone over with the fire hose!

She enjoyed climbing on the trucks with her friends and little brother.

She listened intently to the firemen explain what they had to do for their job.

Overall a really great day!

One of the perks of where we live is that we're close to an airforce base and daily see fighter jets flying overhead. We were able to attend a free airshow that the airforce put on, saw a lot of really cool military aircraft and some really amazing and awesome stunts performed.

And here's one of our cute kids getting ready to help mom cook some dinner! I know it turned out a little blurry, but I love it anyway.

There's this thing called blogging...

2011-10-22T18:29:00.010-04:00

Sorry, guess life has gotten in the way of blogging for the last few months. I'll be playing catch up for awhile!

As promised, here are some pictures from the everglades:

My sister Kathy, her husband James, my brother Mark and his wife Debbie, myself didn't have plane tickets home until the day after the cruise ended, so we spent that last day of our trip together seeing the sights around Florida. Mainly the Everglades and an aligator farm. This gentleman pictured above drove a fan boat tour that we went on through the everglades.

One of the gators cooling himself at the gator farm we went to.

My sister Kathy pretending to get eaten by a gator statue...

The farm also had some pretty exotic creatures. These geese were beautiful, made me want to put on a frilly white dress and go eat some crumpettes.

These are some baby gators. They were just all over each other in their habitats enjoying the sunshine.

This gator was going back into the water for a swim!

Here we are at the Everglade National Park. It was an amazing place, recommend if you ever get the chance to go see what's there. It was beautiful and exotic!

Here's a pretty cool bird we saw at the everglades.

This was the coolest thing ever. We were sitting there enjoying the view and someone in our group noticed this bird sitting there with a fish it had speared. It sat there for awhile making sure we all had noticed and were paying attention to it, then it shook the fish down it's beak and then with a quick flick and jerk of it's head grabbed it in it's mouth without dropping it. It was very cool!

The Cruise!

2011-03-16T16:49:00.018-04:00

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MOM & DAD!

50 years and counting...

As previously mentioned, my parents have their 50th anniversary this month. To celebrate they wanted to take a cruise with their adult children and spouses. It was fantastically fun, we loved the beaches and the sun and sand - but the best part was to be together and talk like Hubbard talk. Lots of fun and laughter and good natured teasing all around with a sprinkling of politics here and there.

The day we left the sun was shining and there was a nice breeze in the air. That breeze turned into a gusty wind that blew the whole week and caused 10 ft swells on the water. The day we were docked, but at night when we were cruising you could feel the water moving beneath your feet. It took several days to get my land legs back!

Jesse borrowed his dad's binocculars and spent a lot of time enjoying the view. The houses around the port in Miami were extravegant and huge and make everyone go...'ooooh, aaaaah'.

One night we took some pictures - ours didn't turn out great, but everyone promised to email what they got. This is one of mom and dad with their kids.

Here we go!

A giant chess board at one of the ritzy hotels at the first port.

Maybe something we can do in our own backyard!

The first day we decided to just look around and see what we could find.

We found a very pretty spot to stop and lounge on the beach.

Here I am being brave and posing for a picture in my swimming suit! While at the beach we ran into my brother Mark and his wife Debbie. We spent the afternoon with them and had a great time just hanging out and spending time together. The water was cool, but not cold. After that we did some suvenior shopping.

The second day we found a beach that didn't have public access. The beaches are all public, but some of them aren't accessable because of the private property surrounding the beach. There was a restaurant and rental shop that we paid to gain access to the beach ($5) and it was away from the tourist crowd and Jesse got to do some snorkeling even though the water was still rough.

That day was spent with Kathy, David, Brent, and Mom & Dad. After beaching we hit the huge straw market there (we were in Nassau) and bought some more souveniers for everyone. We had a great time and too much sun.

The third day we were supposed to stop on Norwegian's private island. They don't have a port there for the ship to dock on, so the plan was to shuttle/ferry the passengers on smaller crafts. Unfortunately the swells were too large to do that safely, so we spent the day cruising around. We found some cards, played games, and talked and enjoyed each other's company some more. By then I was getting anxious to talk to the kids. We didn't have cell service from when we left Miami and the still getting over strep throat made me worry a little while we were out of contact. It was nice to get away, but definitly great to be back in contact the next morning.

The next day (Friday) we deboarded and Mom, Dad, Brent, Karen & Jason all left for home. Kathy & James, Mark & Debbie, and myself & Jesse spent the day together while David & Kelli enjoyed the sights of Miami on their own. We went through the Everglades and down to the Keys. I'll make another post about that.

February

2011-03-15T23:52:00.003-04:00

February was mostly just pushing through 'til the end of the month. My parents are having a 50th Anniversary soon. To celebrate they took their adult children (and spouses) on a cruise. Before we left the kids all came down with strep throat. We got them all meds and took the kids to Utah to spend the week with their cousins while we were gone. Lots of planning and arrangements to make, but definitly a great vacation and refresher for Jesse and I.

January

2011-03-15T23:18:00.006-04:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Spencer has found his nose!

(I don't know why I can't rotate this picture) - Keltsy is my helper. She loves to help me anyway she can and is always the first to volunteer.

Isaac has been excelling in school. Here's a picture of his school award ceremony they do every quarter. He got straight Es (the same as As), that jacket is his favorite one that he got as a hand me down. He wore it all winter, even indoors.

January was a fun month, we moved. I'm glad that's done and it definitly feels more like 'home' than our rental did.

Nov/Dec

2011-03-15T23:05:00.003-04:00

November and December were quite busy for us. We went to Utah for Thanksgiving, our first with extended family for a long time. It was great to see everyone and catch up from just few months previous. I love living closer to everyone and although I know a lot of people have 'in-law trouble', my in laws are awesome and I feel like a real part of the family amongst them. We also found a house to buy...originally we were outbid on the home, but the people didn't respond to the bank (it was a foreclosure) so we ended up with the one we wanted after all! It is an amazing house, had everything on our wish list, more than we could hope for. We closed just before Christmas.

My nephew got married in December, he's the first of the grandkids to get married so all those who could make it came. It was fun to see everyone and get some of the Hubbards together for the holidays. It was sweet to be in the sealing room and feeling all the love being poured into the two getting married - such a fabulous experience.

Summer Pictures

2010-11-09T12:18:00.014-05:00

When we were in Utah this summer, Jesse's family had a reunion and we had pictures done. I just got them and love how they turned out!

The only problem is picking which ones

I want to hang on my wall!

My kids are so darn cute!

For awhile I've been wanting an updated picture of just me and Jesse. We don't have any of just the two of us since the kids came along.

Update

2010-10-01T14:17:00.002-04:00

This is just an update post, since we've been so busy with life the last few months. In June we sold our house (yay!), Jesse got a job offer in Arizona (yay!), but the job didn't start until August and he had work to finish up in Indiana so the kids and I got a loooong vacation visiting grandmas and finding a home to rent in AZ. During that time Jesse came out for a visit as well, he had a conference in Hawaii to attend - which I tagged along to as well - and we had a very, very fabulous, relaxing, yet still stressful summer. The end of July we moved into our new (to us) home, got the kids enrolled in school and Jesse drove all our junk...I mean...stuff to Arizona. It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff one family can accumulate!

So early August we got unpacked, moved in and school started. Isaac is doing well in school. We've never been big on pushing academics, he has a natural curiousity, his memory and comprehension are sharp, but we just figured we were normal parents proud of their kids accomplishments. His Kindergarten teacher advised us that there's a little more to it than that, so we've agreed to have him tested. I don't know what the gifted program entails, but he's currently thriving in his class and when we get the results of the tests and find out whatever they recommend we'll make decisions then.

Keltsy is our peanut kid. She started preschool this year, her b-day is the end of Sept so she's one of the oldest in her class. She went for a well check up and has dropped to the 2% for weight so we'll probably be going to a nutritionist. She has no interest in eating, but since she's heard the doctor say she needs to eat she's been doing much better. She's thriving in school, has made a lot of new friends. Her favorite game is "puppies" where she pretends she's a little yappy dog and I get to give her commands like, "fetch" and "roll over". Its probably the closest we'll ever get to having a dog.

Spencer is almost a year old now. I call him 'dozer' because he is living life like a bulldozer. If he sees something he wants, there is no detering him from that object. The best is when he's on the floor on one side of the table and tries to get across to the other side. Instead of working his way around the table, he plows right through all the chair and table legs. Its quite an obstacle course under there, but he just pushes right through. He's starting to toddle a little, he can take 2 or 3 steps at a time, but prefers the quicker crawling method of getting to whatever it is that he wants. Although he has figured out how to push the kitchen chairs around, he hasn't figured out that they can be used as a tool to accomplish his goals yet. I'm worried when he does.

Jesse's work is going really well. He loves his new job and is working on two papers from the research he did at Lilly. He is worried about working for NIH funds, he prefers private industry in that way, but he loves the lab he's in and his boss feels similarly to him about certain important point on Alzheimers. I don't understand most of it, but he's happy and thriving, that's all that matters.

I've been busy, too. As I said before, we're renting and the Arizona housing market got hit hard by the housing bubble. Bad for the current residents, but good for people moving in. Houses are affordable here now, so I've been scouring the internet finding homes for us to go see. Our ward is huge, I would expect it to split sometime soon, so it has been hard to get to know people. We have joined a babysitting co-op with a few other families, and have been slowly meeting people and starting to settle in.

That's our quick update, hopefully I'll get some pictures downloaded to show you all how much the kids have changed!

Love is in the air!

2010-03-13T21:41:00.008-05:00

February was a pretty busy month for us...as promised here's a picture of our beautiful Keltsy!
She's such a joy to have in our family. She LOVES to color and do puzzles and activity books. She a tiny little kid with no body fat whatsoever - because of that she's always has freezing cold hands and wants to give the baby hugs, making him scream. She does love him so.

Spencer is getting quite delightful. He is already pretending to be shy, smiling and turning his head in an adorable fashion...

I've been super busy trying to scan old photos and film negatives onto our computer. Found this old baby picture of myself that shows off my big Jimmy Neutron sized head...I know where my kids get their round heads from!

Speaking of big heads, Isaac finished his first "read all by myself" book. It's a compilation of the Dick and Jane series. I knew he was ready to read, he has progressed so much this year. We saw his teacher at the school carnival and without saying he was one of her favorite kids in class, she pretty much said he was one of her favorite kids in class. Don't you love those kinds of teachers?

And Isaac took this picture, since I'm not normally in the pictures I thought I'd share one of myself. Still don't like myself in pictures, but I'm sure you're all as curious about me as I am about you... so here you go! My messy hair, post baby weight, make-upless face, but look at that adorable one next to me!

My kids are growing up!

2010-02-15T22:54:00.005-05:00

I know we say it all the time, but my kids are just growing too fast! I want time to slow down a little and give me time to breath it all in...

Isaac's lost a tooth...his first. He got a "gold coin" - it's a dollar coin - from the tooth fairy. He had a talk with someone on the school bus and that friend told him the tooth fairy brought FIVE DOLLARS! I told him that the tooth fairy was a lot like Santa, she talked with the parents first and knew how much we approved for a tooth. He was happy with his 'gold coin'.

Spencer has already had his first illness. He came down with the croupe this last week, and although my house is a wreck I enjoyed holding him as much as I could. He really is a happy baby. I love this pic because you can kind of see his little dimple on his cheek.

Poor Keltsy is already the neglected middle child! I was going through our pictures from January - of course we have a TON of Spencer, being the new baby and we got a few of Isaac, with his first tooth being gone and there were a few he happened to be playing with the baby so I got a few of him then, but Keltsy didn't have any new pictures!

Now that it's Feb. I've been consciously taking more pictures of both her and Isaac, but haven't downloaded February's pictures yet. Maybe the next post I'll have made up for it.

Merry Christmas AND Happy New Year!!!

2010-01-06T08:37:00.012-05:00

This is our annual Christmas card picture. Unfortunately I forget how little time I have during the day and never was able to get them printed and sent.

This season was especially joyful for us, having a new baby to help celebrate. Try singing "Silent Night" while holding a newborn baby in your arms...gives a whole new depth to the awe and sacredness of that special night when Jesus was born.

Our annual ward Christmas party was especially awesome. Santa came and the kids got to give their wishes for their Christmas list.

As you can tell from the Santa pictures, our kids LOVE Christmas and the Christmas Spirit is alive and well in the Hunter household. I love the excitement and joy in the kids faces as they are talking with Santa.

And because babies change so fast, here are some updated pictures of Spencer.

This one is just really cute.

Here's one of him smiling

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and best wishes for you and yours this time of year.

Happy Fall!

2009-11-06T16:21:00.011-05:00

How could we not love this crisp fall weather?! As you can see from the joy on my kids faces, jumping in the leaves is obviously the highlight of the fall. We (okay - by 'we' I mean Jesse) made a huge pile of leaves right by the swingset. The kids and their dad had a blast jumping in the leaves off the swings.

Halloween is "totally awesome"! The pink fairy princess had way too much fun - see how it took two hands to hold up her trunk or treat goodies? Isaac had more fun that what his expression is showing. I think he was a little annoyed at having to wait to get a picture before diving into the goods.

Spencer came home last Sunday, he had gained a full pound and was feeding on demand, so we were all excited to go and get our precious miracle to bring him home. Now we are all sleep deprived, but loving his adorable ways and seeing his own beautiful personality shining forth. He actually is very laid back and sleeps most of the time. We were thrilled last night when his normal three hour feeding schedule stretched to a full four hours. It's amazing what a difference an hour can make!

Surprise!!!

2009-10-20T08:46:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday!

Spencer Preston Hunter

Born Oct. 18, 2009

5 lbs. 4 oz - 19 3/4" long

Hello Everyone! We have some GREAT news and wanted to share our joy! We had a surprise early arrival yesterday at 12:20 am...Spencer Preston Hunter was born via C-section six weeks early, weighing in at 5 lbs. 4 oz., 19 3/4" long! Mom and baby are doing very well.

Now the story, I'll warn you it's long. Saturday afternoon (around 1pm) I realized that I hadn't felt the baby moving that day. This was really unusual as Spencer was a very active baby - doing flips, stretching, kicking, etc. It really worried me for him to go from super active to nothing except a few flutters, which could easily have been explained as something else. So anyway, I started doing all the things that usually make him wake up and get active. I ate lunch - nothing...I laid down so he could stretch out - nothing...I poked my belly - nothing...juice, sugary foods, etc. - nothing. By 6pm I had myself conviced that something was really wrong and I needed to hear his heart beat on a monitor to reassure myself.

Jesse happened to be out of town (OF COURSE - my kids tend to pick the least convient time get sick) in Chicago at a Neuroscience Conference. I called a friend (Heather) and when I started to explain what was going on I burst into tears. I was trying to keep it together to not pass on the worry to Isaac and Keltsy. Well, of course the kids started talking about how the baby was just sleeping, etc. Anyway, Heather's husband came and got the kids and Heather, being the great friend that she is, went with me to the hospital. They got me hooked up to the monitor and immediately felt reassurance when I heard the heart beat and it was at a normal speed, etc. The doctor monitored the heart for a couple of hours. At this time I had definitly felt SOME kicking, but still not anywhere near what I was used to, but hearing the heart beat was VERY reassuring.

When the baby would move the doctor was looking for the heart rate to rise for 20 points and for it to last for 20 seconds. Spencer's rate was only pulling 10 points for 10 seconds, which made the doctor to want to get more information so he ordered an ultrasound. At this point I was ready to go home - it was 9pm, I was tired, thinking that Isaac and Keltsy needed to get to bed, etc...but who would turn down another ultrasound this late in the pregnancy?!

So I got the ultrasound, again heard his heart beat and for 30 min. I was waiting for him to move. They were rating certain things during the ultrasound and he needed a 8 or 10 for the doctor to feel that everything was okay - Spencer pulled a 2 (and that was having enough amniotic fluid, not really anything that the baby was doing).

While waiting for the results of the ultrasound test I called Jesse. It was around 10pm by this point. Jesse had his presentation, was going to dinner with some friends and Chicago is an hour behind our time zone - so I knew he wouldn't be back to get the phone until sometime after 8. We don't have cell phones so really no way or time to get ahold of him. About 10:30 the doctor came in, told me the results of the test and recommended a C-section. From the ultrasound he could tell the cord was around Spencer's neck, but could tell the blood was still flowing etc. and really they couldn't tell what was wrong. He was really concerned, as they could tell from his lack of movement and Spencer's heart not accelerating when it should have, they KNEW something was wrong, but not knowing what it was he wanted to get him out so they could treat ASAP. Spencer was laying sideways in my belly, with his feet down and head on my right side, so there was no way to try to deliver with him in that position, and the doctor felt that turning him might put Spencer under too much stress.

So I called Jesse back, explained what was going on, had him ask the doctor all the question he could think of and at 11pm started getting ready for surgery. Jesse rode the bus to the Conference so he rushed to the airport and rented a car. Being after 10pm there were no flights going out anymore and ALMOST all the car rental places were closed. He found Hertz out in the parking lot was open and made the frantic drive home. I was able to get a blessing before going into surgery, which was very comforting and I'm so greatful for. By 11:45 I was in the operating room and 12:20 Spencer was delivered! I was relieved to see his size and he was crying so I knew his lungs were at least functioning.

The "big problem" that was causing all this panic was that the cord managed to get around his neck THREE TIMES! He literally couldn't move. I got a quick 'welcome to the world' touch and hug. The NICU nurse came at the end of her shift and reassured me that she was so glad I had done what I did, that he wouldn't have made it to term. Jesse made it back at about 3:30am and went down to the NICU to get the status of the baby. Spencer did need a ventilator until 10am the next morning, and they couldn't find a vein so they had to use one in his umbilica cord. But he's off of the ventilator, now has a little tube that's puffs air in his nose and helps him get his lungs filled completely. And they found a vein in his arm to use, so they took out the one in his belly and we were able to hold him this morning. You could tell he likes to cuddle and according to the nurses he REALLY likes his binky!

My mom is come in last night, and our ward has been fantastic with help babysitting the kids and lots of offers for meals, etc. Turns out Jesse is sick with an ear infection, so he can't come back to the hospital - our hospital is keeping out sick people, how funny is that? For me, the pain meds work great :) - and I've been surprised at how good I feel. We appreciate all the prayers we've been receiving at this point and would appreciate any more people would like to send our way.

Apparently, Isaac keeps calling Spencer by his middle name of Preston - who knows, maybe Preston will end up being his nickname.

Thanks for the love and support,
Jesse and Amy (Isaac, Keltsy, and most especially Spencer)

Summer Fun!

2009-07-11T18:36:00.018-04:00

Isaac's been playing T-ball this summer, and having a blast with all his buddies! Here's his first game:

His team is warming up for their first game!

Gotta run fast for that ball, then throw it to first!

Ready position...

Team picture day is next week, but the coaches will both be gone and they each have a kid on the team, so we did some less formal pictures this week - I love the way they turned out. You can tell the personality of each kid in this picture.

We've also had fun with visitors as well. Jesse parents came out for a visit, unfortunately the pictures are all on the 'upstairs' computer, and I'm too lazy to go get them right now. We had fun seeing Nauvoo and visiting some church history sites, then Jesse and his dad went to a HAM Radio fest in Ohio.

A few weeks later my sister and her three boys came to visit and we made a trip to the zoo, the Indy 500, and did LOTS of swimming. We all loved having them here, and my kids especially enjoyed their cousins company.

Here's a few pictures at the zoo:

All the cousins looking at the polar bear, sleeping in the hot sun.

My little monkeys, climbing up the 'big rock' outside the monkey cage.

A few weeks later, my parents made a trip out to see us as well. We took them to the zoo as well and it ended up being a really hot week, so we tried to find some indoor things to do, that weren't too exhausting for all of us. Here we are resting in one of the indoor exhibits at the zoo (gotta love Keltsy's face in this one)!

And another with the kids getting ready to feed the giraffe:

And again climbing the big rock outside the monkey cage (I just thought this was a cute picture):

All in all, it's been a great summer!

I've had a miserable head cold for the last three weeks, but am FINALLY getting over that and ready to get my house back in order from the 'mom's sick and not doing it today' attitude I've been having.

Isaac is looking forward to starting Kindergarten in a few weeks, we start the middle of August here. We should be finding out who his teacher is within the next week or so. It'll be fun with just me and Keltsy for half the day during the week, at least until the baby comes. I think they could use a break from each other, although they do love each other, they love to bug each other as well. I could see a big difference in their relationship when preschool was over and they were didn't get that little break during the day. It'll be nice to have my routine back as well.

I'm always sad to see the remnants of summer pass, the fireflies, the fireworks, swimming, summer reading at the library, but I look forward to the changes that come in the fall...look at me, it's still July and I'm already missing summer!

2009-06-15T20:24:00.006-04:00

We had the exciting doctor's visit today - found out we're having a boy! The sleepy boy wasn't very cooperative for the face picture, but here's my favorite profile picture we were able to get.

We saw he had the hiccups, but the video ended up in slow motion. We do have some video of him stretching his legs, but I can't seem to get it to upload.

So far the names we like are Andrew Preston and David Max - well, those are the names I like and we haven't debated on yet. Jesse keeps suggesting Ebenezer - but that's definitly OUT!

Yay! I can post pics!

2009-04-18T16:52:00.006-04:00

We finally caved and bought a new memory card reader. Ours had been broken for awhile, but we finally got a new one and can post some fun pictures of the things we've been busy doing!

First, as a conservative family we wanted to voice our concerns over what we view to be some reckless spending that's going on in Washington. So, we attended our local Tea Party and were so glad that we did.

The organizers made a huge effort to keep the protest as non-partisan as possible and it was neat to be a part of something bigger than us yelling at the television :).

I thought Keltsy was just cute in this one.

Second, Isaac came home from Preschool on Friday, super excited because they had a "Rodeo Roundup" in school. They made all these cowboy related things and he told me he was "smart about cowboys" because he knew that the bandanas were to help keep the dust off the cowboy's faces. He kept saying "yee haw!" for the picture, but I think we got a cute one.

We've had a pretty good week, I've been tired, but felt great on Thursday and caught up with the housework that needed to be done...even Isaac asked me when I was going to clean up - that's how bad it got. But of course, now I'm really tired again and the house is a wreck. I can suffer, though, a baby is worth that sacrafice :).

Sale!

2009-04-07T16:11:00.002-04:00

I'm having a shop sale - MyBUG. If you'd like to follow sales and updates on my shop, you can check out MyBUG's Blog at www.mybugonetsy.blogspot.com!

WE'RE EXPECTING!!!!

2009-04-03T10:04:00.000-04:00

We're expecting! This came just in time, we were going to start a round of fertility treatments this next cycle, but it looks like Heavenly Father had other plans for us! Our expected due date is Nov. 25th. We are super excited and still a bit in shock and disbelief. I'm only about six weeks along, so your prayers for a safe pregnancy are appreciated.

We still don't know what we're doing with Jesse's work, we'll let you all know as soon as we have some idea of where/when. It will probably be a few more months before we know what's going on with that. We hope to be out closer to family, but we do love it out here so we'll be happy where ever we get planted.

Recipe!

2009-03-27T20:04:00.004-04:00

I've been trying quite a few new recipes lately and thought I'd share what my family has enjoyed here and there. Not necessarily a regular column, but definitly something that will be repeated. I thought I'd start with my bread recipe. I got it from "America's Test Kitchen CookBook" and have adapted it to fit my ingredients and kitchen. It's yummy, and now that we are exclusively on homemade bread we eat it all the time - literally.

In 2 C. glass pyrex measuring cup:
1 C. Milk
1/3 C. Water
3 T. Butter/Margarine

Microwave for 1 min. 30 sec.

While liquid is in the microwave, add 3 T. honey to your mixer (mine's a KitchenAide, LOVE IT, and recommend it to those who make a lot of bread).

Pour liquid over the honey in your mixer. Add 2 1/2 tsp. yeast, 2 tsp. salt and mix with the bread hook dough. Slowly add 1 C. all-purpose flour and 3 C. bread flour (bread flour is the secret to good homemade bread, took me a few years to figure this out, but it does make a HUGE difference). Mix thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of the bowl.

Flour your counter top and pour your bread dough onto the counter. Knead by hand on the counter, adding more flour until dough is no longer sticky and to desired consistency.

Spray bowl with cooking spray, put your dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until double (about an hour).

Punch down, shape into loaf and put into sprayed metal loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise, again 'til double in size or to desired size of loaf. Heat oven to 350 degrees, along with a bread pan that's half full of water. This keeps the humidity in the oven high so the crust isn't too hard or over cooked. Bake for 35 mins.

Remove from oven and from bread pan onto a wire rack. While still warm, rub the outside of the loaf with butter/margarine.

This recipe freezes well, see my previous posts abour freezing bread dough.

This May Not be Kansas, but it's Still Scary!

2009-03-10T21:15:00.006-04:00

The threat of tornados is still scary to me here in the midwest. We had these in Alabama as well, but the weather man there was AWESOME and you could turn on the news and know where the tornados would hit if they came down. Here in Indiana it's just pretty much "A storm is coming TAKE COVER!"

We also get straight line winds that make me nervous and wishing for a basement. A couple of nights ago the wind was just howling, and the next day I was picking up some toys scattered around the backyard and found some shingles. Uh, oh! Yep, a few had been ripped off the roof in the night. We were really blessed that some shingles had been leftover from a back porch area that the previous owners had added onto the house, and the fact that they left the leftovers was so amazing. We didn't have to go hunting for matching shingles, but Jesse was out on the roof until well after dark last night trying to get them attached. Of course the weatherman predicted rain today, so it HAD to be done yesterday...then it didn't rain at all.

Good news though, we have a fund raiser this year that I think will be a success. The YW are selling ward cookbooks for $5 each and we've had a ton of Relief Society sisters making multiple orders. There are 95 recipes in the books, they were all submitted by the RS sisters, most by email, so it wasn't terribly hard to put together and they only cost $1.62 per book to make. Meaning the majority of the funds raised will go to the girls. I'll post again if it's as big of a success as I'm hoping.

Jesse also got two raises this week, he got a merit raise AND a cost of living raise. I told him this meant we had no excuses for date night anymore :). We just can never seem to justify the cost of dinner and a movie, plus the cost of a babysitter...but once a month shouldn't hurt, especially since we only go to the dollar movies.

We've also discovered RedBox rentals. We had been limiting our movie watching to the dollar theater then just buying the movies we wanted at Christmas. For the cost of seeing a "real" movie, we figured we could just own it. Now that we have found Red Box, we can 'preview' the movie for cheap and decide if it's worth the $15. Of course movies that we KNOW we'll like we go ahead put it on our 'to buy' list (like Star Trek, Narnia, or the Bourne movies), but this just gives us one more option. The only bad thing is the RedBox we go to is in McDonalds and those fries are SO, SO TEMPTING!

Is it Spring yet?!

2009-02-26T14:20:00.003-05:00

Isaac today said "It's been MORE than six weeks of winter!" and I agree! He of course was talking about the whole groundhogs day thing, but I am READY for spring to come. It's just a rainy, yucky day today. We spent the morning at the library and now I'm being lazy on my computer instead of mopping my sticky kitchen floor.

I've found a powdered milk solution for our family. I've been trying to use our powdered milk, so we can rotate it and actually use the milk. I honestly can't stand the taste though, so I've been using it in my Slimfast breakfast shake and occasionally for baking. Some nice lady at church gave the suggestion of adding non-fat dairy creamer to it to make it more rich, so I tried it and it worked! I make the milk in 2 qt. batches and add 1/4 c. creamer (the dry kind) and it is good. Definitly cheaper than "real" milk, and in a pinch we could drink powdered milk with minimal moans at house. Jesse would probably still complain, but he's spoiled :).

My "house" plants are dying. We bring the outside potted plants inside every winter, and by spring they are a miserable mess. They always make a comeback once they put back in their natural habitat though. I like living in a humid environment that rains frequently. I don't have to think about taking care of the plants.

I'm starting to think about our garden this year. I say "our garden", but really it's Jesse's. We have a five foot square patch of dirt we plant a few tomatoes and few other veggies every spring and Jesse takes care of it all summer. I have a gardening friend at church that has volunteered to give us a shoot from her blackberry bush. She says it grows like a weed and it's domesticated so it doesn't have thorns. I love blackberries, so I'm really excited to see how it does in our back yard.

We still don't really know what we're doing come August. Jesse's contract is up with Lilly then, but his research hasn't been going as well as he expected, so it's kind of "wait and see" for us. I'm hoping he'll either get offered a permanent position or get his contract extended for another year. There are a few finishing touches on the house to have it be ready to sell and another year would be awesome. BUT, if he ends up finding a job somewhere (hopefully closer to family) we'll take it and hopefully sell the house.

We've started seeing another fertility specialist! We aren't in a rush mode to get pregnant again (although we've been trying for the last two years), but we'd like to have some answers if there are any. I really like this doctor we're seeing, he's on the same page as us with getting a diagnosis if we can find one and tweeking the hormones as necessary. He agrees that it's probably my pituitary tumor messing around with my hormones a little. In fact, this doctor's sister has a pituitary tumor, so he's familiar with these tumors and feels comfortable being my endocrinologist for the remaineder of the time that spend here in Indy. I'm really excited to see what's up, even if the diagnosis is that we're done having kids. It's the not knowing that's hard part. The economical side of me is wanting to hold onto the baby stuff "just in case", but if we're done I'm ready to get rid of things. I'd definitly like to purge our house of a lot of "stuff"!

It's a Jungle Out There!

2009-02-15T19:09:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday the Young Women in our ward has their annual New Beginnings/Young Women in Excellence night. The theme was "It's a Jungle Out There", a hodge podge of ideas my presidency got off the internet. It was FABULOUS, we got tons of great feedback and there were tears shed by many (always a good sign)!

To start, the girls had been working on learning the YW Theme in sign language, and it was a little rough around the edges, but they did it and it was really cute. The Mutual Theme is "'Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity' (1 Timothy 4:12)" - and we talked about how each girl's example is like their own light. Then each of the parents stood up with their daughter and told what kind of a light their daughters reminded them of. One was a lava lamp (bright, cheerful, full of energy and bouncing around), another was the light of the moon (gets her light from 'The Son', reflection of Christ), we had a sunflower (light like the sun), a beautiful candle painted by her grandmother, an energy saver bulb (she saves her light, and even after being switched off still has a little 'glow' about her), and many more. This was the time the most tears were shed.

Then the parents were taken on a "jungle tour" where they went around the church and the YW talked about the value experiences and projects they have been working on throughout the year. Then back to the "watering hole" for refreshments.

It was a very nice night and honestly the stress of planning, preparing, a fretting was very much worth the effort. Everyone had a great night!

Bread Dough Update

2009-02-15T19:04:00.004-05:00

Just an FYI, you CAN freeze bread dough! I just let it rise once, punch it down, wrap in saran wrap and put in a bread pan and freeze until hard. Then wrap it again in tin foil and put in a freezer bag until later. When I notice I'm running low on bread I take the dough out of the freezer, leave it wrapped up and put in a bread pan to thaw in the fridge. I usually do this the night before, so the next morning I put the thawed dough into a greased bread pan and let it rise covered lightly with saran wrap. This is really good to do on Saturday evening, so when we head to church on Sunday morning, it's all ready to cook when we get home. Then we can have a warm loaf of bread with our "Sunday Meal", which is usually some good comfort food.

My kids are the cutest!

2009-02-02T21:49:00.005-05:00

I think my kids are the funniest people on the planet. Isaac has preschool at the local YMCA, and often after I'm done working out, Keltsy and I will go play in the "Prime Time Center", which is a fancy indoor play place. The superivsor of that room is a good friend of ours. She is always authoritative in her bright red shirt, but super fun and knows all the kids names. The other day Kelsty and I were in the Center, and the supervisor came in with her kids. It was her day off, she just came to play, and Keltsy ran up to her and asked, "How come you're wearing clothes?" The little munchkin had noticed that she wasn't wearing the official red shirt...it actually took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about. She often says random things like that. Like the time she announced to the missionaries, "I HAVE SKIN!"

Isaac is equally hilarious. He likes to play tricks and tell jokes. His favorite is one he got from a TV show "What do you call a cow that cuts the grass?" "A lawn moooo-er!" Whenever he tells a joke, he asks, "Does that make sense?" He knows that the joke has to 'make sense', but isn't quite sure what makes sense and what doesn't.

Bread Dough Experiment

2009-01-29T11:09:00.003-05:00

I've been trying to save some money by making our own bread. It actually has been coming out really yummy (you have to use bread flour for good bread dough - took me years to figure this part out), but the biggest hassle is always having the time to make it when we run out. I just searched online to find out exactly how to do it. There seems to be no one set way to do it, except the general consensus is to defrost overnight in the fridge before allowing to rise at room temp. Since school is still out today, I think I'll do the big bread dough experiment...I'll let you know how it turns out!

Snow Day...finally!

2009-01-28T16:19:00.003-05:00

We've been waiting all winter for it and it finally came! We got about six inches of snow over the last 24 hours, closing schools all over Indianapolis. We had fun this morning, I shoveled the driveway and the kids played/cried in the snow. Keltsy is not a fan of cold, but she SO wanted to play. The snow came up to her waist and she couldn't really walk around in it and just got frustrated and cried. I showed her how to find snow that had already been stepped in to get around. Our neighbor friends were also outside shoveling, and they had kid sized shovels, making play time even more fun. Isaac climbed "the biggest snow mountain ever!". He wanted to have a snowball fight, me and him against Keltsy. Too bad the snow isn't sticky, it just falls apart, so we couldn't do snowballs or make a snowman. It was a lot of fun, though...and then hot chocolate tops off the day!

My Laptop DIED!

2009-01-14T17:38:00.004-05:00

I am so bummed...our laptop went on the fritz about two weeks ago. We hurried and copied all our files to our desktop so we could reconfigure everything, but it's still not working. It sort of figures, on the heals of becoming re-energized about our budget something unexpected would come up. Jesse thinks if we get a new "ram" for it (whatever that is...) that it may fix it, and he thinks that's not too big of an expense, so we'll be trying that. Mostly, it's just such a pain, because I used to check our email 50 times a day, check people's blogs, work on my etsy shop, stop into some message boards, etc. throughout the day. It's really not very convenient having our desktop in our bedroom...in fact I can hear my kids screaming right now and I've got to go settle some battle...

Okay, battle settled. See, with a laptop I could just look over and yell much more convincingly than when I'm WAY up stairs and not within sight, sigh...hopefully we'll get our laptop back and I'll be more active in keeping up with all this again!

BUT, I have used this mini laptop break to learn how to knit! I'll post pics soon, the hat I made looks a little rough, I dropped a few stitches, but the booties turned out really cute! I'm excited to experiment with the different stitches. There's a lot more I can do with knitting than crochet. It's kind of fun to increase my "skills" (as Napolean Dynamite would say).

New Year...New Numbers...

2009-01-01T16:39:00.009-05:00

That's it...it's final...our budget for 2008 is calculated and we definitly need to reevaluate our spending habits and make some cuts. I'm not complaining about our finances, we've been extremely blessed and I truly believe that we've been protected and blessed due to our tithing contributions. BUT, this is a wake up call to once again go through our finances and see that we have places where we can dramatically cut in our spending.

We have been good about a lot of things: we still live in the stone age of not having a cell phone, we're on basic cable (mainly for the internet), we don't have any debt except for our mortgage, we have eaten out maybe five times this year...really though, that just makes me more ashamed that we don't have better control of what's going out.

For 2009 we have a New Year and new goals! I am setting a goal for 2009 to sharply cut our spending. With Jesse's contract with Lilly running out in August, our future is a bit uncertain when it comes to employment and with the status of the economy I think it's prudent to be a little more urgent with our savings goals for this year. If I find any great money saving tips, I'll definitly be keeping you all posted...I'm all about cutting costs whenever possible.

Two Birth Celebrations

2008-12-31T13:04:00.011-05:00

This last week was a lot of fun. First we celebrated Isaac's Birthday, he turned five and seems to think this is a very big milestone. He has told everyone we meet that he is five and "just had a birthday this December!" His party was fun, it was his first "friend party". Usually we just do a family party, but this year we decided five was a bit of a milestone and we would invite a few friends. We ended up not doing anything structured and the kids ran around and played and had fun. Then we did the cake and ice cream thing along with the gift opening, which I suspect was Isaac's favorite part...

The second birth was of course the birth of our Savior! Christmas is always such a beautiful time of year. We had a beautiful Christmas Eve with the kids. We have had fun blending the traditions from both mine and Jesse's families, as well as coming up with a few of our own as well. Every Christmas Eve we do homemade hamburgers and fries (a tradition from Jesse's side), we read the story of Jesus's birth from the Bible (both families do this), as we read each part the kids put up the corresponding pieces for the nativity. Then we watched the LDS Video "Joy to the World". We opened one gift on Christmas Eve, which is always Christmas jammies! This year Mommy and Keltsy matched and Daddy and Isaac matched. We put on our jammies, then we heard Santa's Sleigh bells coming!!!! Hurry, hurry, put out the reindeer food, the cookies and milk, and get into bed (at this Keltsy burst into tears...a little too exciting I think).

Christmas morning was so much fun. Our kids are at such fun ages where they are so grateful for everything, the candy cane is as exciting as the Play-Doh. It was fun to see them with their faces full of surprise and excitement. Of course the toys weren't the only thing that kept them entertained that day...

We had a lot of fun, spending time with each other and remembering the birth of Christ. I hope we can take these memories throughout the next year and remember to slow down, remember the important things in this life, and strive to partake of the blessings of the Atonement.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-20T16:27:00.000-05:00

Christmas is just a few days away! I am always excited this time of year, now that our kids are getting bigger it just makes the magic of Christmas even more exciting. We took our annual Christmas picture by the Christmas tree, and even I'm impressed with how well it turned out. I did a little tweeking with Picasa and love the way it turned out.

This year we'll be spending Christmas just us as home. We took two family vacations, once to visit my family in Washington State, and then we tagged along with Jesse on a business trip to Washington D.C. and the kids and I had a great time seeing the sights. So, no big plans for Christmas. Just us, at home, relaxing, doing a few projects around the house, etc.

We are also getting ready for Isaac's birthday on Tues. He is turning five years old (already?!) and will have his first party with friends. We usually do a family birthday with just us going to dinner and doing the cake and ice cream/present thing at home...but this year we felt like five was a big deal so he's having a few friends over. We're going to play "snowball fight", which he did in his preschool P.E. class. It's just a game using plastic grocery bags balled up (use tape to keep them together) and you throw them at each other. Sort of like dodge-ball. I picked up a few party favors, but for the most part - although it's a friend party - this will be a very low key party.

Keltsy is also getting big, she starts Sunbeams in January! I think that means we're ready (or way past ready) to have another baby. That's probably MY Christmas wish this year, ha ha!

Our family wish this year is that everyone is happy, healthy, filled with the Spirit, and able to provide for themselves, their families, and help those they know in need. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday To ME!!!

2008-10-04T11:14:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday! Today is my birthday and it's already been a great one. Hubby let me sleep in AND made breakfast for me and the kids. He's promised to take the kids all day, I can tell it's going to be a great day!

2008-09-13T15:03:00.000-04:00

Business News - I've got a new and exciting twist to my baby hats that will be coming soon. I've learned how to crochet small roses, which I am adding to my hair clip collection. The clips will be attached to the girl hats and also sold separately. I'll post pics as soon as I get them finished!

Family News - Isaac is doing great in pre-school. He has made a lot of fun and exciting crafts, including a paper horse with clothespin legs and a "hickory-dickory dock" clock with a mouse that actually 'runs' up. Keltsy has loved going to the Kid's Room while Isaac is in pre-school. She is turning into a little outgoing little girl. Mommy has been hitting the gym. I've been pretty sore this week, from a new class I did on Monday, plus the weight training I've added to my cardio workout. Ten more pounds to go!!! Daddy has been super busy redoing the master bathroom and it is (finally) almost finished! He is putting up the shower door today, then he just has to reinsall the clothset shelving and put the trim back up. It's all coming together and looking great. I'll post pictures when it's finished!

Preschool started this week!

2008-08-29T13:16:00.000-04:00

It's official...my baby is growing up :), yes that's a smile face! Isaac started preschool this week, and although he was a little emotionally overwhelmed the first day, this week has been smooth sailing. His first day, he was so excited and anticipating the week prior to going. The door to his class opened and he marched right in, no tears or hanging back. After school he was pretty grumpy, picking on his sister, looking for ways to start a fight, everything was "No!" and "Uh!". When we got home I sat him on my lap and asked why he was so grumpy, "did you have a good day at school?"...Isaac said, "No, it was boring, I had to listen!" - ha ha! Well, get used to it kid, first lesson in school is listen to teacher! I think it's good for him, he's enjoyed every day since and even brought home a monkey mask that he made today.

Keltsy was super cute that first day as well. She insisted on having her picture taken also, and was sort of worried about Isaac being gone. She kept asking where he was and when we were going to get him. I kept saying that we would go get him in a few hours, but she didn't quite understand that. She understood lunch time - and accepted that answer without further inquiry. She was excited to have him back, though.

Opening Day!

2008-08-27T12:51:00.000-04:00

Today is opening day for my newest blog! This is mainly a blog featuring my family, but I'm slipping in some promotion for my online shop as well (My BUG)!

First, my life...I am my husband's girlfriend (Jesse) and my kids mom (Isaac 4 1/2 and Keltsy (almost 3)! I am living the American Dream, cute little house, in a cute little neighborhood, with my cute little family. I really love my life!

Second, my shop! I have recently started a shop on etsy.com to feed my crafting hunger. I love crochet and have ventured into a little sewing, hairbow making, etc. I really enjoy spending what little time I have - dreaming, creating, and even selling. This is starting out as a little hobby, but would love to see it become much more.