Unsolicited Parenting Advice and How to Raise Devious Children

I have been thinking lately about how wise I have become as a mother.  My biggest advice for parenting toddlers is to find the perfect balance between bananas and raisins.

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Keltsy lost a tooth yesterday. She looks so grown up with that gap there.  She wrote a note to the tooth fairy:

Translation:  I want to keep my tooth(??)  Happy Valentine's Day.

The Tooth Fairy wrote back that usually the fairies aren't allowed to leave the teeth behind, but because Keltsy was so good and so sweet the boss said it was okay just this once.  Keltsy was excited to see the whole dollar left and promptly informed her dad that she was going to use that tooth to trick the Tooth Fairy into leaving her more money tonight.  Hmmm...starting to rethink that "good and sweet" part, lol!



Merry Christmas 2011

This has 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 their adult children on a cruise around the Bahamas, Jesse had a work conference in Paris (yes, that’s Paris, France!), we took a two week trip to Washington for a Hubbard Family Reunion/50^th Anniversary Family Party, and managed to take a short weekend family trip to visit with Great Grandpa Hutchison.  It’s been a hectic and fun year for us:

Jesse has continued to work hard to provide for his loving family.  He’s researching Alzheimer’s disease and although he has his challenges, loves the work he is doing and hopes his career aspirations pan out.  He is continuing his 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 but dirt.  Now the house is entirely surrounded with pavers, has a large grassy back and a full garden.  He has recently finished removing the gravel from the front yard and we now have a lawn coming in there as well!  I’m glad those projects are finished so we can start seeing him on the weekends again  Funny sidenote – if Spencer sees someone in the yard working, or hears a leaf blower, he says, “daddy?!”.

Amy is still keeping busy at home.  She has been patiently waiting for Jesse to stop spending money on the yard work so she can 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 still get so little done.  The house is never quite clean, the kitchen is never closed and the laundry…well, we won’t go there.  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 wholesome recreational activities including book club, playgroup and heading up girl’s night.  She also enjoys finding a bargain and considers her thrift store outings a bit therapeutic.

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

 

Keltsy is also doing really well in school.  She started Kindergarten this year and is already ahead of the standard.  She’s reading and can count past 100 and count  by 2s.  Her favorite question is, “mom, what does this spell”?  She is also having a lot of fun in T-ball and is filling her afternoons playing with friends and doing “art”.  She was especially thrilled when the lawn grew in our back yard.  She missed 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.

Spencer is growing into a fun two year old.  He has also grown a strong will.  He is very loving and has a few cute tricks we’ve taught him.  When asked, “Who’s a cutie?” he happily exclaims, “ME!” and when he gives kisses he says, “gross”.  He is a far way off, but potty training has been 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.

We are 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 of our Savior Jesus Christ.  We hope to live our lives as a reflection of his love.

Merry Christmas and Love -
The Hunters
Jesse, Amy, Isaac, Keltsy, and Spencer

Budgeting Meals

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!

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

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

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!

Happy Birthday!!!

Spencer Preston Hunter

Oct. 18, 2009

5 lbs. 5 oz.

1 yr. old!

2 yrs. old!

October - sickies and Halloween

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!

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!

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!